scholarly journals They ought to do it too: Understanding effects of social information on donation behavior and mood

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire van Teunenbroek ◽  
René Bekkers ◽  
Bianca Beersma
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Injunctive Norm ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Charitable Behavior ◽  
Online Donation ◽  
Perceived Social Norms ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
Donation Behavior

AbstractSocial information, providing potential donors with information about the donation amount given by earlier donors, is often applied as an intervention in online donation contexts. It has been suggested that social information informs others about the most common (descriptive norm) or appropriate (injunctive norm) behavior, and that these perceived social norms explain its effects. We present evidence from a preregistered online experiment testing to what extent perceived social norms mediate effects of social information on charitable giving. In addition, we examine whether social information affects donors’ moods. A positive mood after donating is important to avoid negative side effects of a nudge like social information. We argue that social information increases social pressure to donate in a certain way and therefore decreases donors’ moods. In an experiment among British citizens (n = 1029), we manipulated descriptive and injunctive social information. We show that injunctive social information, mentioning the appropriate donation amount, increases donation amounts (10%) and donors’ moods (10%). Contrary to earlier research, merely stating descriptive social information did not affect the donation behavior or mood. We found no evidence that social information affects giving behavior or mood via perceived social norms. Our findings how different types of social information affect charitable giving are important for fundraisers or policy makers aiming to increase charitable behavior.

scholarly journals Follow the crowd: Social information and crowdfunding donations in a large field experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Van Teunenbroek ◽  
René Bekkers
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Natural Field Experiment ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Online Donation ◽  
Donation Behavior ◽  
The Individual

Purposely guiding human decision making with a discrete suggestion, ‘nudging’, is increasingly popular. One particularly promising nudge is to provide decision makers with information about the decisions of others, also referred to as social information. Social information is often applied in fundraising campaigns to increase individual donations. A discrete suggestion such as the donation amount of others can result in donors donating similar amounts. We examined effects of social information in a relatively new context, namely crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a new online fundraising tool. Our study, based on a large natural field experiment (n = 24,070), tests to what extent social information affects online donation behavior and how its effects vary throughout the duration of a campaign. We show that social information increases the individual donation amount by 17%, which is close to the average of 14% found in previous studies. However, social information did not attract more donors: the participation rate was not affected. Our study is the first to pinpoint the stage of the funding campaign at which the effect of social information is most pronounced. We found that social information is most effective in increasing donations at the beginning of crowdfunding campaigns. All materials for this article are available at https://osf.io/epuj6/.

scholarly journals Request framing moderates the influence of affective images on charitable giving

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Genevsky ◽  
Brian Knutson ◽  
Carolyn Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Positive Affect ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Interactive Effect ◽  
Matching Effect ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
Donation Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

AbstractFundraising organizations face difficult decisions regarding how to construct solicitations for donations. While these aid requests often include multiple salient features, their interactive effect on donation behavior and the psychological mechanisms that underlie their combined influence remain unclear. In six studies utilizing online and laboratory samples, as well as hypothetical and real incentives, we examine whether and how request framing moderates the impact of positive and negative images on charitable giving. Across all studies and in a single-paper meta-analysis, the influence of affective images on giving was moderated by the valence of request framing, such that affectively matched features most effectively elicited donations. Further, donors’ experienced positive affect could account for this matching effect – even in cases of matched negative features. These findings suggest that organizations can increase the effectiveness of aid requests by focusing on the affective match of request features. This work integrates previously discrepant findings on the impact of affect on donations and holds both conceptual implications for how affect can influence giving and practical implications for organizations seeking to design optimally effective requests for aid.

scholarly journals Why Do People (Not) Engage in Social Distancing? Proximate and Ultimate Analyses of Norm-Following During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
James O. Norton ◽  
Kortnee C. Evans ◽  
Ayten Yesim Semchenko ◽  
Laith Al-Shawaf ◽  
David M. G. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Public Health Organizations ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Perceived Social Norms ◽  
The Impact

COVID-19 has had a profound negative effect on many aspects of human life. While pharmacological solutions are being developed and implemented, the onus of mitigating the impact of the virus falls, in part, on individual citizens and their adherence to public health guidelines. However, promoting adherence to these guidelines has proven challenging. There is a pressing need to understand the factors that influence people’s adherence to these guidelines in order to improve public compliance. To this end, the current study investigated whether people’s perceptions of others’ adherence predict their own adherence. We also investigated whether any influence of perceived social norms was mediated by perceptions of the moral wrongness of non-adherence, anticipated shame for non-adherence, or perceptions of disease severity. One hundred fifty-two Australians participated in our study between June 6, 2020 and August 21, 2020. Findings from this preliminary investigation suggest that (1) people match their behavior to perceived social norms, and (2) this is driven, at least in part, by people using others’ behavior as a cue to the severity of disease threat. Such findings provide insight into the proximate and ultimate bases of norm-following behavior, and shed preliminary light on public health-related behavior in the context of a pandemic. Although further research is needed, the results of this study—which suggest that people use others’ behavior as a cue to how serious the pandemic is and as a guide for their own behavior—could have important implications for public health organizations, social movements, and political leaders and the role they play in the fight against epidemics and pandemics.

Actual and perceived social norms of children’s road crossing behavior

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tova Rosenbloom ◽  
Ofri Hadari-Carmi ◽  
Yael Sapir-Lavid
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Perceived Social Norms ◽  
Road Crossing

Laypeople’s Belief of the Influence of Thank-You Gifts on Charitable Giving

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiqing Huang ◽  
Yuzhuo Zhang ◽  
Jieyu Lv ◽  
Tong Jiang ◽  
Xi Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Prosocial Behaviors ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Donation Behavior ◽  
Emotional Value

Abstract. Although offering gifts to encourage prosocial behaviors is a popular daily strategy, its underlying mechanism remains unknown. This study investigated the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving in laypeople’s beliefs ( N = 1,293). Study 1 showed that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase charitable giving. Study 2 found that laypeople believe thank-you gifts increase both charitable giving and positive emotions of donors. Study 3 further showed that laypeople’s anticipation of donors’ emotional gain might play a mediating role in the effect of thank-you gifts on charitable giving. Study S1 found that participants’ donated amounts in the benefit-to-others thank-you gifts condition exceeded other conditions on actual donation behavior. These findings emphasize the emotional value of the gift in laypeople’s beliefs.

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