This year a flood devastated a small river town  Hollyville, also a river town, responded with an outpouring of aid in which a majority of its residents participated, a proportion that far surpassed that of a few years ago when Hollyville sent aid to victims of a highly publicized earthquake
This year' s circumstances were a reversal of last year' s, when Hollyville itself was the scene of a deadly tornado and so the recipient rather than the supplier of emergency aid
People are more likely to aid those who have experienced a hardship similar to one they themselves have experienced than to aid those who have experienced a dissimilar hardship.