Doing more good, doing good better

In the years 2020-2 the global pandemic has led me to contemplate the impact of my work, the role that psychologists in society, and our potential impact on doing good in the world. I’ve tried to gain some understanding of this domain through my various activities in judgment and decision making (why people do not act, action versus inaction), and open science and meta research (replications in the domain of environmental psychology), but these seemed too small and too slow.

 

In 2022 I decided to try and leverage my teaching and research to try and promote “Doing more good, doing good better” aiming to support human flourishing and reduce death, pain, and suffering. I endorse a science based approach to helping, giving, and addressing the world’s biggest and most urgent challenges.

 

I first shifted my UG courses from an emphasis on open-science to exploring effectiveness and impact through psychological science. Once I gain a better understanding of this domain I hope to follow by better aligning my research in these directions.

 

Overview talks

 

For an overview of the work I do with students related to “Doing more good and Doing good better” here are some initial thoughts shared in a talk at Vin University on October 2024:

 

"Doing more good and doing good better": Psychology of altruism & charitable giving | Vin University
Watch this video on YouTube.

 

 

Research

Related research I do:

  1. Action and inaction: When and why people prefer inaction to action
  2. Heuristics and biases that impend and improve helping and giving.
  3. Morality: How do people think about helping and giving.

 

Examples

(underlined: supervised students; ^: corresponding author)

 

Published Registered Reports projects on charitable giving :

  1. Chan, M. & ^Feldman, G. (2025). Factors impacting effective altruism: Revisiting heuristics and biases in charity in a replication and extensions Registered Report of Baron and Szymanska (2011). Royal Society Open Science, 12: 250290. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250290
    1. Endorsed by Peer Community in Registered Reports.
    2. [Stage 2 endorsement/Open review] [Stage 1 recommendation/Open review]
    3. [Article] [Preprint] [Open materials/data/code] [Open access] [Presentation]

Registered Reports with a Stage 1 in-principle acceptance from Peer Community In Registered Reports and data already collected and analyzed (though still requiring verification and Stage 2 peer review):

  1. Li, M., & ^Feldman, G. (2026 expected). Revisiting diversification bias and partition dependence: Replication and extensions Registered Report of Fox, Ratner, and Lieb (2005) Studies 1, 2, and 5.  https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/FUJSV
    [Stage 2 preprint] [In-principle acceptance/Open review] [Open materials/data/code]

    1. Two of the experiments replicated showed partition dependence in donation allocation.
  2. Woo, T., & ^Feldman, G. (2026 expected). Revisiting the signal value of emotion in altruistic behavior: Replication and extension Registered Report of Barasch et al. (2014) Studies 3 and 6. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RWDN6
    [Thesis with results] [In-principle acceptance/Open peer review] [Preprint] [Open materials/data/code]
  3. Cheng, T., & ^Feldman, G. (2026 expected). Do pain and effort increase prosocial contributions?: Revisiting the Martyrdom Effect with a replication and extensions Registered Report of Olivola and Shafir (2013). https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/YU25A
    [Thesis with results] [In-principle acceptance/Open peer review] [Preprint] [Open materials/data/code]

 

Courses and collaborative resources

 

With my course students I crowd-sourced over 150 hypotheses in my courses to mapping cognition and biases regarding charity comparisons:

 

Related work with students in courses oriented towards “Doing more good, doing good better”:

 

Collaborative resources with students in my courses:

  1. CORE team, & ^Feldman, G. (2023). Effective Altruism using Psychological Science collaborative book. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6S58R
  2. CORE team, & ^Feldman, G. (2023). Comparing charities: Psychological science factors in charitable giving. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KRDNG

 

Other resources created in those courses: