Can charitable appeals identify and exploit belief heterogeneity?

Charitable fundraisers frequently announce giving by others, and research shows that this can increase donations. However, mechanism may not put information about peers to the most efficient use if it is costly inform individuals who are indifferent peer actions or causes some give less. We investigate whether a simple without incentives predict heterogeneity in charitable responses decisions. elicit beliefs donations baseline solicitation, subsequent solicitations we randomly assign others’ find elicited often logically inconsistent many subjects fail update when treated. Elicited did heterogeneous treatment effects on donations, making strategy unlikely succeed unless engaged salient.