If you were asking people to donate to charity, your first instinct would probably be to pull at their heart strings, or emphasize the importance of the cause. But when psychologist Peter Reingen ran an experiment to figure out what gets people to give money, he got a completely different answer. The key to getting donations is convincing targets that other people gave first—63% of people donated when shown a list of others who had, versus just 40% without the list.
It’s a well-known concept....