How Charitable Appeals Shape Donors’ Donation Choices: Giving Food or Books: Nuances in Donors’ Responses To Positive versus Negative Appeals

Charitable donors' decision-making is often informed by the parable of "giving a person a fish versus teaching a person how to fish." Some donors' prosocial behaviors are dependency oriented, whereas others are autonomy oriented. Few studies, however, have examined how charitable appeals shape donors' choices. The authors of the current research investigated this issue in four studies combining various behavioral measures. Results show that positive (versus negative) appeals were more effective in inclining donors toward autonomy-based (versus dependency-based) donations by broadening (versus narrowing) donors' cognitive scope. This effect was present only when the donors' motive was to signal their commitment to a cause. These findings, thus, can help enhance the effectiveness of charitable advertisements.