People with Fewer Facebook Friends are Better at Fundraising

It turns out that those with fewer Facebook friends just may be more successful with fundraising efforts. Scientists have discovered that those with fewer connections raise more money than those with lots of Facebook friends.

In this case, the researchers found a negative correlation between the size of a group and the amount of money given by each donor, with the average contribution by each person dropping by two pence for every extra connection someone had on Facebook.

In a previous study, the researchers found that when people are part of a larger social group, they feel less of a need to share information about well performing charities because they're expecting other friends to share that information. Yet it appears that this concept of what is known was "free-riding" also extends to giving in social groups; friends expect other friends to give, and so don't bother themselves.

"The problem is that everyone thinks the same thing and therefore the actual amount of money that's donated is less than it could have been had fewer friends been asked in the first place," said Kimberley Schraf, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The findings reveal that when it comes to giving behavior, it may be more important to target smaller groups rather than broad swathes of people.

"Giving behavior is largely affected by existing personal relationships, whether it's friends family or work colleagues-these factors are extremely important according to the responses we had from donors."

The findings are published in the journal International Economic Review.

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