How an Author’s Views on Giving Evolved

There are four forces in modern American life that are primarily responsible for making people charitable. These forces are

religion, skepticism about the government in economic life, strong families, and personal entrepreneurism.

It is not the case that these forces are exclusive to the political right, and even less the case that they are exclusive to the American Republican Party. In fact there are many, many liberals who are religious and have rock-solid families — and who give a lot. (I myself grew up in an intact, religious, politically liberal family where giving was very important.)

It is fairly natural and instinctive for most political conservatives to behave charitably. Meanwhile, people deeply embedded on the political left are frequently not part of a “culture” of giving, with potentially large negative consequences for themselves — and in the case of liberal policy makers, for the people they serve as well.

These are not the sort of conclusions I ever thought I would reach when I started looking at charitable giving in graduate school, 10 years ago. In fact, I have to admit that back then, I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book.

I lived in a world characterized by impressionistic stereotypingDid rich people want tax cuts? I would have told you it’s because they were uncompassionate. Did the school levy fail? Voters needed to be more charitable. And so on. In truth, my personal views about “charity” amounted to little more than unquestioned liberal political beliefs.

When I started doing research, I expected to find that political liberals — who I believed genuinely cared more about others than conservatives did — would turn out to be the most privately charitable people. So when my early findings led to the opposite conclusion, I assumed I had made some sort of technical error. I reran analyses. I got new data. Nothing worked. In the end, I had no option but to change my views

Indeed, the irresistible pull of empirical evidence is what changed the way I see the world. It has also guided me in my personal search for the truth — as a teacher, of course, but also in my private life as a donor and volunteer.

— Excerpted from Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, by Arthur C. Brooks, to be released by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group ©2006.