My wife and I stood outside Kibera, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya.
Kibera is one of the largest slums in the world, home to 1,000,000 people, by some estimates.
This was a depth and scale of poverty unlike anything I had seen before.
The average resident earns less than $2.00 per day.
There are few schools.
Clean water is scarce.
It was overwhelming to witness, leaving me feeling helpless in the face of such suffering.
A Thought Exercise
Imagine you have been asked to help a foundation decide where to provide grant money.
The foundation has received three grant applications for the Kibera slum, each for $100,000.
The foundation has exactly $100,000.
You can only fund one.
Which one would you choose?
GRANT APPLICATION A
There are 1,000 people in Kibera dying from Disease A.
There is an expensive medication that is highly effective.
For $100,000, you can save 100% of their lives. Not a single person will die.
GRANT APPLICATION B
There are 5,000 people in Kibera dying from Disease B.
The medication is only 30% effective.
For $100,000, you can save 30% of the patients, but the rest will die.
GRANT APPLICATION C
There are 25,000 people in Kibera dying from Disease C.
The medication only works 8% of the time.
For $100,000, you can save 8% of the 25,000 people, but the rest will die.
Which grant application do you fund?
Proportion Dominance Bias
The most logical answer is Grant Application C, because it saves the most lives.
A: 100% of 1,000 people is 1,000 people
B: 30% of 5,000 people is 1,500 people
C: 8% of 25,000 people is 1,750 people
And yet in study after study, people tend to prefer Grant Application A.
Why?
It is more emotionally satisfying to solve “all” or “most” of a small problem than “a little” of a huge problem.
This is called the “Proportion Dominance Bias.”
What can you do with this?
If you have to fundraise or get people to support a project, define the problem in a way that allows people to solve as close to 100% of the problem as you can.
Let’s take a library example.
The DeKalb Public Library in DeKalb, Illinois has a “Friends of the Library” group.
According to their website, they donated “puppets, books and a large carpet for the Story Time classes for preschool children.”
Let’s say it was $1,000 total.
$200 for the rug
$500 for the books (50 books at $10 each)
$300 for the puppets (12 puppets at $25 each)
I want to ask someone for $25.
I can ask them to donate $25 towards the whole project.
This is solving 2.5% of a problem.
I can ask them to donate $25 to purchase one of the puppets.
This is solving 100% of a much smaller problem.
Because of proportion dominance bias, you are MUCH more likely to get the donation for a single puppet than $25 towards the whole project.
This works for recruiting volunteers, voters, and just about anything else that you need to talk people into doing.
People don’t just want to contribute. They want to complete something.
Have a great week!
Peace,
Ryan