Beth Breeze, a researcher in Britain, is looking into how wealthy people’s attitudes about money affect their philanthropy, a timely topic during the current economic downturn.

“It’s fascinating that people who have exactly the same amount of wealth can either be relaxed and feel they have enough to spare to give a nice chunk away, or can feel uptight and worried about letting go of any of it,” says Ms. Breeze, who works with the Center for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy, an academic center in London supported by the University of Kent and several other universities.

On her blog, Kent Philanthropy, she discusses some of her findings.

“Our paper concludes that people’s own perceptions of their wealth — however objectively curious — need to be taken into account in fund-raising activities, because someone being targeted may not agree they have much to spare,” she writes. “But we also suggest that under-giving by the rich might be due to a lack of empathy, rather than meanness or financial illiteracy.”

She concludes her blog post: “Given the current economic crisis, perhaps we can sympathize somewhat more convincingly with anxious billionaires, even whilst we use this research to shore up our efforts to encourage them to start, or expand, their philanthropic activities.”

What do you think? Do you agree with Ms. Breeze?