Mixed reasons, missed givings: The costs of blending egoistic and altruistic reasons in donation requests

Feiler, Daniel C.; Tost, Leigh Plunkett; Grant, Adam M.

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.014

Cited by 92 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Based on our results and on previous research related to argument-inconsistency (e.g. Feiler, Tost & Grant, 2012;Chang & Lee, 2010), we argue that both emotional and analytical arguments can work, but that mixing them in a single charity appeal can have detrimental effects on helping. This is very much in line with the results from a field experiment in Denmark where a campaign letter focusing on one identified victim elicited similar amount of donations as a campaign letter focusing on statistical victims, but where both these letters elicited more donations than a campaign letter that mixed information about identified and statistical victims (Lesner & Rasmussen, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Previous studies have shown that mixing different types of arguments can reduce compliance. For example, providing both egoistic and altruistic reasons for giving reduced actual donations compared to presenting only one type of argument (Feiler, Tost & Grant, 2012; see also Chang &Lee, 2010 andAaker, 2004 for other types of argument-inconsistency). We propose that charitable appeals can try to persuade potential donors either by using emotional arguments or by using analytical arguments.…”

Section: Interaction Between Victim-characteristics and Existence Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims in a refugee crisis context

Erlandsson

Västfjäll

Sundfelt

et al. 2016

Journal of Economic Psychology

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Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many nonidentified victims in a refugee crisis context Arvid Erlandsson (corresponding author): Word count: 9596 (excluding abstract and reference list) © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ RUNNING HEAD: HOW STATISTICAL INFORMATION INFLUENCE HELPING Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims in a refugee crisis context AbstractIt is known that both the characteristics of the victims one can help and the existence of victims one cannot help influence economic helping decisions in suboptimal ways. The aim of this study was to systematically test if these two aspects interact with each other. In Studies 1 and 2, we created hypothetical charity appeals related to the Syrian refugee crisis and factorially manipulated characteristics of victims possible to help (one identified child/nine non-identified children) and presence of statistical information about the scope and nature of the problem (information-box absent/present). We found a significant interaction effect both when using self-rated helping intention (Study 1), and when using actual donation behavior as the dependent variable (Study 2). Statistical information decreased helping intentions toward a single identified child but had no, or even a small positive effect on helping nine non-identified children. In Study 3, non-student participants reading a charity appeal with both a story about one identified child and statistical information donated less often than participants reading appeals with either only a story about one identified child or only statistical information. We suggest that both emotional arguments (e.g., a story and picture of an identified child in need) and analytical arguments (e.g., detailed statistical information about the scope and nature of the problem) can make us more motivated to help refugees, but that mixing different argument-types can make charity appeals internally inconsistent and decrease donations. Keywords: charity appeals; helping refugees; identified victim effect; pseudoinefficacy; anticipated warm glow; argument-inconsistency.Word count: 9596 (excluding abstract and reference list)

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Interaction Between Victim-characteristics and Existence Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims in a refugee crisis context

Erlandsson

Västfjäll

Sundfelt

et al. 2016

Journal of Economic Psychology

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“…For instance, public health research documents how interventions can trigger intraindividual mechanisms, such as beliefs, knowledge, and skills, to improve health behaviors (Cugelman, Thelwall, & Dawes, 2011; Hutchings et al, 2007, in our review). Studies in psychology show that enhancing individuals' motivation and skills and changing their decision-making contexts stimulates more proenvironmental, healthier, and prosocial behaviors (Feiler, Tost, & Grant, 2012;Noar, Benac, & Harris, 2007;Osbaldiston & Schott, 2012, in our review). Behavioral economists document similar mechanisms under the label "nudging" (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Organizations Driving Positive Social Change

Stephan

Patterson

Kelly

et al. 2016

Journal of Management

241

112

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Academic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC-the transformational processes to advance societal well-being-that is fragmented across different streams of research in management andAcknowledgments: The second and third authors contributed equally to this manuscript. The authors are grateful for the excellent friendly reviews and comments provided by Ian Macdonald, Andreana Drencheva, and Tima Bansal to previous versions of this manuscript. Tima Bansal, Pamela Laughland, Rob Briner, Jo Rick, and Our societies face growing challenges in areas such as public health, education, social inequality, and environmental pollution. Market-based organizations can play an important role in addressing these challenges by stimulating transformational processes to advance societal well-being, referred to in this paper as creating positive social change (PSC). Popular management concepts such as "shared value" (Porter & Kramer, 2011), "inclusive growth" (George, McGahan, & Prabhu, 2012), and "base of the pyramid" (BoP) markets (Prahalad & Hart, 2002) reflect this potential and associate a range of organizational activities with PSC. Firms such as Unilever or Walmart initiate PSC projects to "do good and well" (Bansal & DesJardine, 2014), social enterprises leverage market-based activities to more effectively alleviate societal challenges (Mair & Marti, 2006), and investors seek to instigate social change while generating economic returns (Mair & Hehenberger, 2014).Management research on these phenomena is on the rise but remains fragmented. It mainly focuses inward on organizational activities and rarely explores how these activities may have external effects stimulating societal well-being beyond organizational boundaries. The extensive research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) focuses largely on understanding why and under which conditions firms engage in socially responsible activity and how such activity affects their financial performance (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012;Carroll & Shabana, 2010). The increasingly popular research on social enterprises pays attention to possible tensions that arise from pursuing multiple and potentially competing goals (e.g., Besharov & Smith, 2014) and elaborates on their unique organizational structures, identity, and governance (Mair, Mayer, & Lutz, 2015; Wry & York, in press). Research on business activity at the BoP focuses on identifying new market opportunities (Prahalad & Hart, 2002), developing new business models (Seelos & Mair, 2007), and building inclusive markets (Mair, Marti, & Ventresca, 2012).The tendency to introduce and hang on to distinct labels to demark the uniqueness of research areas hinders building cumulative knowledge on market-based activity and PSC across these different research streams. And the inward focus of these research streams limits their contribution to unde...

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“…Both of these types of motives—self-oriented and self-transcendent—can be important for learners and can motivate task persistence (Eccles, 2009; Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). These different motives also frequently co-exist (Batson, 1998; also see Feiler, Tost, & Grant, 2012). In fact, in a series of qualitative interviews conducted with a diverse group of high school adolescents, it was common for teens to pair self-transcendent motives with self-oriented motives—much more common in fact than having only a self-transcendent motive (Yeager & Bundick, 2009; Yeager et al, 2012).…”

Section: Defining a “Purpose For Learning”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Boring but important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation.

Yeager

Henderson

Paunesku

et al. 2014

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

360

324

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Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This research proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. This proposal was supported in four studies with over 2,000 adolescents and young adults. Study 1 documented a correlation between a self-transcendent purpose for learning and self-reported trait measures of academic self-regulation. Those with more of a purpose for learning also persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative, and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. Study 2 addressed causality. It showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school science and math GPA over several months. Studies 3 and 4 were short-term experiments that explored possible mechanisms. They showed that the self-transcendent purpose manipulation could increase deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials (Study 3), and sustain self-regulation over the course of an increasingly-boring task (Study 4). More self-oriented motives for learning—such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career—did not, on their own, consistently produce these benefits (Studies 1 and 4).

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Mixed reasons, missed givings: The costs of blending egoistic and altruistic reasons in donation requests

Cited by 92 publications

References 51 publications

Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims in a refugee crisis context

Argument-inconsistency in charity appeals: Statistical information about the scope of the problem decrease helping toward a single identified victim but not helping toward many non-identified victims in a refugee crisis context

Organizations Driving Positive Social Change

Boring but important: A self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation.

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