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Increasing the Impact of Research Using Web 2.0
AcaWiki is like a "Wikipedia for academic research" designed to increase the impact of scholars, students, and bloggers by enabling them to share summaries and discuss academic papers online. AcaWiki turns research hidden in academic journals into something more dynamic and accessible. All content on the site is licensed under the Commons Attribution license. To learn more about what AcaWiki can do for scholars, students, teachers and the public read the FAQ, or look at a sample summary.
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AcaWiki enables you to easily post summaries and literature reviews of peer-reviewed research. Please read our posting guidelines before proceeding. If you want to find summaries or literature reviews of peer-reviewed research, you can either browse summaries or search.
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Write eiπ + 1 = 0 or any other formula on AcaWiki with the <math> tag. Use LaTeX formatting or see the manual for full details. Thanks to Yossi Farjoun for suggesting we add this great MediaWiki plugin! Send us your ideas for AcaWiki.
Featured Summary: Why Do People Donate to Charity?
Paper Title: A Signaling Explanation for Charity
Many people feel that donating to charity is purely an altruistic action. However, the authors of this paper suggest otherwise. Instead, they suggest that donating to charity in many cases is a way for people to conspicuously signal their wealth. As evidence, the authors looked at donations to a charity and found that the majority of donations came in at the minimum amount to make it to the next tier. For example, if the categories were between $0-$99, $100-$199, $200-$299 donations would be clustered at the $100 level and the $200 level. Economic theory suggests that donations should be more evenly distributed - that people should donate what they can pay. However, donations were clustered at the bottom of the next tier suggesting that people are making donations as a way of signaling.
In addition, the authors argue that donations are a better signal of wealth than things like luxury products. In many cases excessive conspicuous consumption is banned by social norms. One who is too gluttonous or showy is considered overly ostentatious. Second, luxury products are not always reliable signals because they can be faked. Donating to charity may actually be a more stable signal of wealth. Read more...
