The polite wiggle‐room effect in charity donation decisions

Abstract

We extend research on charity donations by exploring an everyday tactic for increasing compliance: asking politely. We consider three possible effects of politeness on charity donations: a positive effect, a negative effect, and a wiggle room effect where the perception of the request is adjusted to decline donating without feeling selfish. Results from six experiments systematically supported the polite wiggle room effect. In hypothetical donations contexts, indirect requests were judged more polite. In real donation contexts, though, indirect requests were not judged as more polite and had no consistent effect on donation decision. Rather, the decision to donate predicted the perceived politeness of the request, independently of its phrasing. Experiment 4 provided causal evidence that participants justified their donation decisions by adjusting their perception of the request. The polite wiggle-room effect has important implications for organizations that seek to increase compliance while maintaining a positive image.

Self‐serving perception of charitable donation request: An effective cognitive strategy to boost benefits and reduce drawbacks

“…We expected to replicate past findings that non-donors would perceive the request more negatively than donors (Juanchich et al, 2019) (H1), but we expected that this could be because either donors or non-donors resorted to politeness redefinition relative to control participants (H2a and H2b). Furthermore, we expected that this redefinition could boost the positive effect of donating and reduce the negative effect of refusing to donate (H3: effect of donation on emotion, H4: boost of the effect of the decision via politeness redefinition).…”

“…From this, we expected to have 99 participants in the control group and 297 for the experimental group, of which 40% of donors (119 donors and 178 non-donors). Such sample size would enable to detect the critical effect of the donation decision on politeness perception estimated conservatively as a medium-effect of Cohen's d = 0.35 (assuming α = .05, power = .90), smaller than those observed in past research (Cohen's d = 0.71-1.41 in Juanchich et al, 2019).…”

“…Here, we show that in addition to a compassion fade, the repeated exposure to donation appeals might directly raise negative feelings in the form of guilt. Polite request might not lead to more donation decisions (Juanchich et al, 2019), but might reduce the feeling of guilt from not giving and also boosts feelings of happiness from donating. Hence, charities should formulate requests as politely as possible to alleviate the psychological costs of requests in non-donors and boost happiness in donors.…”

Negative Effect of Roundup Requests on Repurchase Intentions

“…This is because consumers want to avoid situations where they are faced with engaging in prosocial behaviors. In fact, individuals tend to leverage any aspect of a situation (Juanchich et al, 2019) and act in their own self-interest when “situational excuses for selfish behavior exist” (Regner, 2018, p. 780). For instance, people choose not to participate in incentivized prosocial activities (Schwartz et al, 2019) and avoid supermarket entrances where volunteers are positioned to ask for donations (Andreoni et al, 2017).…”

“…For instance, people choose not to participate in incentivized prosocial activities (Schwartz et al, 2019) and avoid supermarket entrances where volunteers are positioned to ask for donations (Andreoni et al, 2017). People also make all sorts of excuses for refusing to comply with prosocial requests by finding fault in the way the donation was requested and say that the request was not phrased in a polite way (Juanchich et al, 2019).…”