What it looks like
A naming right or public honor can recognize a visible gift without reporting its later results. This illustrates the proposed mechanism; it does not show how common it is or what it does to giving.
Why it happens
People give for many reasons, and feeling good about giving is one of them. The economist James Andreoni called this the “warm glow,” in a model of giving. Warm glow concerns satisfaction from giving itself; it does not by itself establish a preference for large or public gifts. Humanity’s Checklist proposes redirecting status toward generosity. Whether that would improve giving is a hypothesis.
This is a hypothesis
Charitology’s claim is that prestige pulls money toward visible, nameable gifts and away from effective ones. The warm-glow model is published. The sources here do not establish whether prestige systematically shifts money away from effective opportunities or by how much.
No one is to blame
Wanting to be recognized for generosity is human, and recognition encourages more giving. The fix isn’t to remove the glow. It’s to point it at results.
What we don’t know yet
Can generosity become a stronger status signal than consumption, and what would it unlock? That is Open Problem 15, the Status Flip.
Generosity becomes a status symbol for what it achieved, and the most admired gift is the one that worked.