Effects of the severity of collective threats on people's donation intention

Understanding people's behavior when they are under threat is important to both researchers and practitioners. This study investigates the impact of the severity of collective threats on people's donation intention. Through a series of studies, our findings show that the severity of collective threats positively affects people's donation intention. Specifically, when a collective threat becomes more severe, people under threat tend to pay more attention to and feel empathy for others experiencing the same threat, thus increasing their donation intention. Furthermore, the positive effect of collective threat severity on people's donation intention becomes weaker when the degree of threat relief is high (vs. low). It is also found that when donation recipients are experiencing a different threat from that of donors, the positive effect of collective threat severity disappears. This study enriches our understanding of people's behavior under threat and extends the literature on social identity theory. Additionally, our results provide important managerial implications for charity organizations regarding how to increase people's donation intention by selecting appropriate locations and timings for donation activities.