People exhibit scope insensitivity: Their expressed valuation of a problem is not proportionate with its scope or size. To address scope insensitivity in charitable giving, Hsee et al. (2013) developed the (Classical) Unit Asking technique, where people are first asked how much they are willing to donate to support a single individual, followed by how much they are willing to donate to support a group of individuals. In this paper, we explored the mechanisms, extensions, and limitations of the technique. In particular, we investigated an extension of the technique, which we call Sequential Unit Asking (SUA). SUA asks people a series of willingness-to-donate questions, in which the number of individuals to be helped increases in a stepwise manner until it reaches the total group size. Across four studies investigating donation judgments (total $N=2045$), we did not find evidence that willingness to donate (WTD) judgments to the total group increased with larger groups. Instead, our results suggest that Unit Asking (sequential or classical) increases donation amounts only through a single one-off boost. Further, we find evidence in three out of four studies that the SUA extension increases WTD judgments over Classical Unit Asking. In a fifth study ( $N=537$) using a contingent valuation design (instead of donation judgments), we find scope sensitivity using all asking techniques. We conclude that, while it is difficult to create scope sensitivity in WTD judgments, SUA should be considered a promising approach to increase charitable donations.

中文翻译：

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调查（顺序）单元询问：对捐赠判断意愿范围敏感性的不成功追求

人们表现出范围不敏感：他们对问题的评估与其范围或大小不成比例。为了解决慈善捐赠中的范围不敏感性问题，Hsee 等人。（2013）开发了（经典）单位询问技术，首先询问人们愿意捐赠多少来支持单个人，然后询问他们愿意捐赠多少来支持一群人。在本文中，我们探讨了该技术的机制、扩展和局限性。我们特别研究了该技术的扩展，我们称之为顺序单元询问（SUA）。SUA 向人们询问一系列捐赠意愿问题，其中受帮助的人数逐步增加，直至达到团体总规模。四项调查捐赠判断的研究（总计$氮=2045$），我们没有发现证据表明向整个群体捐赠（WTD）判断的意愿随着群体规模的增大而增加。相反，我们的结果表明，单位询问（顺序或经典）只能通过一次一次性的增加来增加捐赠金额。此外，我们在四分之三的研究中发现证据表明，SUA 扩展相对于经典单元提问提高了 WTD 判断。在第五项研究中（ $氮=\mathrm{第537章}$）使用条件估值设计（而不是捐赠判断），我们使用所有询问技术找到范围敏感性。我们的结论是，虽然在 WTD 判断中很难建立范围敏感性，但 SUA 应被视为增加慈善捐赠的一种有前途的方法。