A conversation with an AI can make a person 45% more likely to donate their money to a highly effective charity.
Large language models are significantly better at using evidence-based persuasion than human fundraisers. These AI agents can tailor their dialogue to address a donor's specific emotional barriers or logical questions in real-time. We often think of charity as a deeply human, emotional connection that requires a personal touch. This research shows that machines can actually be more effective at convincing us to be altruistic. By using the right words at the right time, AI can push people toward high-impact giving that they would otherwise ignore.
Increasing the effectiveness of charitable giving with AI-generated persuasion
PsyArXiv · 6cyn4_v3
Charitable donations frequently fail to maximize cost-effectiveness (the amount of good a donation does per dollar). This failure is often attributed to charitable motivations being affective and thus insensitive to evidence-based arguments. We challenge this perspective, hypothesizing that evidence can substantially increase effective giving—if that evidence is sufficiently compelling. We test this prediction in a pre-registered experiment (N = 1,949 Americans) by leveraging the ability of arti