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Research

My research is motivated by a desire to understand the role of individual, social, contextual, and cultural factors on the psychology of help giving and receiving. I believe in the importance of taking my theories and insights into the real world to, ultimately, help marketers, organizational leaders, policymakers, and activists more effectively address pressing world problems such as global poverty and inequality. To this end, my research tackles the following questions:

1. What psychological costs associated with aid or aid delivery prevent eligible individuals from taking up and utilizing help from charitable organizations and government programs?

With so much of our world’s time and money being poured into aid efforts, it is incredibly important that we understand the consequences of these aid programs: are they helping the recipients of aid as much as they could be? Even if givers extend objectively valuable resources that, if used, could effectively help recipients, these resources will never have the chance to impact recipients if those in need neglect to take up and use the assistance. This research strives to uncover and eliminate the psychological costs associated with aid (such as shame and lack of empowerment) via changes in how or what aid is marketed and delivered to, ultimately, increase aid take-up.

For a list of my published and ongoing projects, check out the sections below. Please reach out if you are interested in working together on projects related to The Psychology of Help Receiving!

The Psychology of Help Receiving

  1. Kassirer, S., Levine, E., & Gaertig, C. (2020). Decisional Autonomy Undermines Advisees’ Judgments of Experts in Medicine and in Life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 117(21): 11368-11378. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910572117
  2. Kassirer, S. & Kouchaki, M. (2023). Aid Utility Theory: An integrative approach to solving the last mile problem. Research in Organizational Behavior, 43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2023.100196 
  3. Kassirer, S., Jami, A., & Kouchaki, M. (2024). Is In-kind Kinder Than Cash? The Impact of Money vs. Food Aid on Social Emotions and Aid Take-up. Forthcoming at Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 
  4. Kassirer, S. & Kouchaki, M. Giver Spotlighting Negatively Impacts Recipients of Aid. 2nd round R&R at the Journal of Marketing Research [preprint available upon request].
  5. Kassirer, S. & Kouchaki, M. Development of the Aid Recipient Identity Scale (ARISE). In prep [preprint available upon request].
  6. Whillans, A., Tepper, S., Kassirer, S., & Thakkar, S. Rainwater Collection Technology Can Improve the Wellbeing of Poor Families in India. In prep.
  7. Kassirer, S., Waldfogel, H., & Kouchaki, M. The ‘Victim’s’ Perspective on Being Identified. In progress.
  8. *Kassirer, S., *Jaroszewicz, A., & Kouchaki, M. Barriers to Wanting and Asking for Help. In progress.
  9. Kassirer, S. & Whillans, A. Time Poverty Interventions to Reduce Newborn Mortality in India: A Project with Ansh. In progress.

2. Why do individuals sometimes help less (effectively) than they could?

Previous research on prosocial and charitable behavior has focused mostly on how to use one-off tactics to increase individuals’ willingness to give (for a review, see Bekkers & Wiepking, 2011). My work focuses on developing novel theories and interventions to (i) increase longterm, habitual prosocial behaviors (via changes in organizational structures and moralization-based interventions) and (ii) encourage more effective helping behaviors. Specifically, I aim to understand the antecedents and barriers to effective and long-term prosocial behaviors, such as charitable giving, prosocial consumer behavior, and social movement participation.

For a list of my published and ongoing projects, check out the sections below. Please reach out if you are interested in working together on projects related to The Psychology of Help Giving!

The Psychology of Help Giving

  1. O’Brien, E. & Kassirer, S. (2019). People Are Slow to Adapt to the Warm Glow of Giving. Psychological Science, 30(2): 193-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618814145
  2. Kassirer, S. Jordan, J., & Kouchaki, M. (2023). Giving-by-Proxy Triggers Subsequent Charitable Behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104438
  3. Kassirer, S., Smith, I., & Kouchaki, M. Marketing for Moralization. Revise and resubmit at Management Science [preprint available upon request].
  4. Kassirer, S. & Rucker, D. Opening Minds to Heated Moral Issues: Understanding and Disarming the Moral-Emotional Shield. In prep [preprint available upon request].
  5. Kassirer, S. & Touré-Tillery, M. Giving Time or Money: Which Altruism Feels More Effective? In prep [preprint available upon request].
  6. *Caviola, L., *Kassirer, S., Lewis, J., Schubert, S., & Althaus, D. Effective-minded Cognition. In prep.
  7. Kassirer, S. Geiser, A., & Schroeder, J. Demeaning Aid. In prep.
  8. Kassirer, S. & Schroeder, J. When Can Beggars Be Choosers? In progress.
  9. Kassirer, S., Caviola, L., Kouchaki, M., Wydick, B., & Cassar, A. Giver Motives Across Cultures: Obstacles to (effective) charitable giving amongst low and high socioeconomic individuals in the USA, South Africa, and India. In progress.
  10. Kassirer, S., Wallace, L., Feinberg, M., Lee, S.W.S., & Kouchaki, M. The Psychology of Moral (Un)certainty. In progress.
  11. Kassirer, S., Smith, I., Kouchaki, M., Lee, S.W.S., & Feinberg, M., A Gradient Meta-theory of Moralization. In progress.

3. How can we maximize the social impact of our research?

Connecting behavioral science research to policy is a focal route through which researchers can contribute to meaningful and sustainable social change. Yet, researchers often fail to make this connection. In my article published in Academy of Management Perspectives, I discuss behavioral science research’s potential to inform effective policy and social change, and provide a roadmap for how to realize that potential. My perspective is rooted in the effective altruism (EA) philosophy, which argues that people should use evidence and careful reasoning to figure out how to use their scarce resources (i.e., time and money) to do the most good. I hope that this article can help to spark discussion and meaningful change within management research and behavioral science more broadly so that we, as individual scholars and as a field, can make a bigger and better impact.

Please reach out if you are interested in discussing Global Priorities Research!

Global Priorities Research

  1. Kassirer, S., Levine, E., & Kouchaki, M. (2023). A Call to Maximize the Social Impact of Our Research: An Effective Altruism Approach. Academy of Management Perspectives, 37(4). https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2022.0045