26 pagesIn a great many situations where we are asked to aid persons whose lives are endangered,
we are not able to help everyone. What do we then do? In a series of experiments, we first
demonstrate that donors, in general, become demotivated by information about children who
cannot be helped. We find that negative affect from the children not helped decreases the warm
glow associated with aiding the children who can be helped. This demotivation may be a form of
“pseudoinefficacy” that is nonrational. We should not be deterred from helping whomever we
can because there are others we are not able to help. Second, we show that people react in two
ways to such requests. Some feel less good about helping those they can help and they help less.
Others feel badly because of those “out of reach” and they become even more motivated to help
whomever they can. We discuss the need to better understand these two different reactions and
we suggest strategies to reduce the demotivating effects of pseudoinefficacy
