Working Paper: NBER ID: w30486
Authors: Roland Benabou; Ania Jaroszewicz; George Loewenstein
Abstract: We analyze the offering, asking, and granting of help or other benefits as a three-stage game with bilateral private information between a person in need of help and a potential help-giver. Asking entails the risk of rejection, which can be painful: since unawareness of the need can no longer be an excuse, a refusal reveals that the person in need, or the relationship, is not valued very much. We show that a failure to ask can occur even when most helpers would help if told about the need, and that even though a greater need makes help both more valuable and more likely to be granted, it can reduce the propensity to ask. When potential helpers concerned about the recipient’s ask-shyness can make spontaneous offers, this can be a double-edged sword: offering reveals a more caring type and helps solve the failure-to-ask problem, but not offering reveals a not-so-caring one, and this itself deters asking. This discouragement effect can also generate a trap where those in need hope for an offer while willing helpers hope for an ask, resulting in significant inefficiencies.
Keywords: help-seeking behavior; psychological barriers; interpersonal relationships; three-stage game
JEL Codes: D03; D23; D64; D82; D83; D91
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Fear of rejection (D81) | Failure to ask for help (H84) |
| Generosity of sender (D64) | Likelihood of offering help (D64) |
| Absence of offer (Y70) | Refrain from asking (Y60) |