@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp15576,
            	author={Benabou, Roland and Jaroszewicz, Ania and Loewenstein, George},
            	title={It Hurts to Ask},
            	year={2022},
	month={Sep},
            	institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)},
            	address={Bonn},
            	type={IZA Discussion Paper},
            	number={15576},
            	url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp15576},
	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-socaring 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={prosocial;cooperation;altruism;shyness;respect;rejection;asking;helping;image;reputation;information aversion},
            }