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

Algorithmic versus human surveillance leads to lower perceptions of autonomy and increased resistance

Past research indicates that people tend to react adversely to surveillance, but does it matter if advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence conduct surveillance rather than humans? Across four experiments (Study 1, N = 107; Study 2, N = 157; Study 3, N = 117; Study 4, N = 814), we examined how participants reacted to monitoring and evaluation by human or algorithmic surveillance when recalling instances of surveillance from their lives (Study 1), generating ideas (Studies 2 and 3), or imagining working in a call center (Study 4). Our results revealed that participants subjected to algorithmic (v. human) surveillance perceived they had less autonomy (Studies 1, 3, and 4), criticized the surveillance more (Studies 1-3), performed worse (Studies 2 and 3), and reported greater intentions to resist (Studies 1 and 4). Framing the purpose of the algorithmic surveillance as developmental, and thus informational, as opposed to evaluative, mitigated the perception of decreased autonomy and level of resistance (Study 4).

Self-focused or other-focused: The influence of acknowledgment type on subsequent donation desires

This study employs morality preference theory to explore how acknowledgment type (self- vs. other-focused) influences donors' subsequent donation desires. The current research consists of 3 studies. Study 1 finds that an other-focused acknowledgment letter elicits higher subsequent donation desires than a self-focused letter. Study 2 testifies to the mediating role of morality preference between the relationship of acknowledgment type and subsequent donation desires. Study 3 manipulates the moral value on "what is the morally right thing of donation" and developed a new scale to measure morality preference. Study 4 excludes the influence of language structure and tests the main effect in a real donation behavior context.

Understanding motivation for implementing cooperative learning methods: a value-based approach

The implementation of cooperative learning methods remains disparate in primary schools despite their widely recognised benefits. To explain this paradox, we first examined whether teachers’ inclination towards cooperative methods is motivated by their values. Second, we tested whether motivational connections between personal values and cooperative methods are undermined when conflictual values are activated in context. Study 1 demonstrated that pre-service teachers strongly endorsed self-transcendence (ST) values (expressing compatible motivations with cooperation) relative to self-enhancement (SE) values (expressing conflictual motivations with cooperation). Adherence to ST values was also positively associated with their beliefs and attitudes regarding cooperative methods. In Studies 2, 3 and 4, educational sciences students were experimentally exposed to different contexts, wherein ST, SE or neutral values were promoted. Our findings indicate that when SE values were emphasised in the context, the positive association between ST values and beliefs/attitudes regarding cooperative methods disappeared. Although the results of Study 4 regarding the intention to use cooperative methods were not statistically significant, the pattern was similar. Finally, Study 5 showed that primary school teachers’ ST values positively predicted the self-reported use of cooperative methods when they perceived their school to weakly endorse SE values, but not when they perceived it to strongly endorse them.

An experimental test of fundraising appeals targeting donor and recipient benefits

We partnered with Alaska's Pick.Click.Give. programme to implement a statewide natural field experiment with 540,000 Alaskans designed to examine two of the main motivations for charitable giving: concerns for the benefits to self (impure altruism or 'warm glow') or concerns for the benefits to others (pure altruism). Our empirical results highlight the relative importance of appeals to self: individuals who received such an appeal were 6.6% more likely to give and gave 23% more than counterparts in the control group. Yet, a message that instead appealed to recipient benefits (motivated by altruism) had no statistically significant effect on average donations relative to the control group. We also find evidence of long-run effects of warm-glow appeals in the subsequent year. Our results have import for theoreticians and empiricists interested in modelling charitable giving as well as practitioners and policymakers.

Cuteness or Coolness-How Does Different Anthropomorphic Brand Image Accelerate Consumers' Willingness to Buy Green Products?

Green consumption is an important component of environmental protection behavior. The behaviors of individual consumers are having unprecedented impacts on the sustainable development of a green society. Previous research has discussed how anthropomorphic beneficiaries of environmental behavior (e.g., nature/earth) impact green consumption behavior and compared the influence of anthropomorphic presence and absence on consumers. However, few have examined the impact of different types of anthropomorphic carriers with environmental benefits (e.g., green product/brand) on consumers. This research explores the matching effects on the willingness of consumers to buy green products between the anthropomorphic image of the brand (cute vs. cool) and advertising appeals (self-interest vs. altruism); in addition, the underlying mechanisms of matching effects are revealed. The results show that, under the self-interested advertising appeal, the cool anthropomorphic image can lead to higher purchase intention of green products due to the mediating role played by the brand capacity trust. However, when exposed to altruistic advertising appeal, the cute anthropomorphic image can enhance brand goodwill trust of consumers and make consumers more willing to buy green products. Finally, this paper discusses the contributions and limitations.

Seven (weak and strong) helping effects systematically tested in separate evaluation, joint evaluation and forced choice

In ten studies (N = 9187), I systematically investigated the direction and size of seven helping effects (the identifiable-victim effect, proportion dominance effect, ingroup effect, existence effect, innocence effect, age effect and gender effect). All effects were tested in three decision modes (separate evaluation, joint evaluation and forced choice), and in their weak form (equal efficiency), or strong form (unequal efficiency). Participants read about one, or two, medical help projects and rated the attractiveness of and allocated resources to the project/projects, or choose which project to implement. The results show that the included help-situation attributes vary in their: (1) Evaluability – e.g., rescue proportion is the easiest to evaluate in separate evaluation. (2) Justifiability – e.g., people prefer to save fewer lives now rather than more lives in the future, but not fewer identified lives rather than more statistical lives. (3) Prominence – e.g., people express a preference to help females, but only when forced to choose.

The Effects of Extra-Team Goal Disclosure on Team Performance, Viability, and Satisfaction

In addition to the team's shared goals, team members also often hold goals unrelated to the team. Research about such goals, which we call "extra-team goals" (ETGs), has been limited. In the current research, we examine how awareness of a team member's ETGs affects team outcomes. A laboratory experiment examines the effects of disclosure of different types of ETGs by one team member (target) on team performance, team viability, and team satisfaction while engaging in a brainstorming task. Our findings suggest that there are significant positive effects of ETG disclosure on team performance, team viability, and team satisfaction, and that these effects are mediated by perceptions of the target's commitment to the team's goal.

Recognizing and Trusting Persuasion Agents: Attitudes Bias Trustworthiness Judgments, but not Persuasion Detection

People rely on intuitive knowledge about persuasion to cope with persuasion attempts motivated by self-interest. Because this knowledge associates persuasive intent with low trustworthiness, identifying the communicator as an agent with ulterior motives tends to reduce trust in the communicator. Three studies suggest that the extent to which people call on this association to assess a persuasion agent depends on whether the agent's message challenges or reinforces their prior attitudes. Challenged attitudes motivate people to use the negative association between persuasive intent and trustworthiness, whereas reinforced attitudes lead people to neglect it. However, prior attitudes do not affect people's capacity to detect cues of ulterior motives and develop an awareness of the persuasive intent. Thus, recipients of persuasive messages that support their prior beliefs trust persuasion agents despite being aware of the agents' ulterior motives. This seems to be a byproduct of people's motivation to preserve a sense of self-integrity.

Self-Interested and Altruistic Motivations in Volunteering for Clinical Trials: A More Complex Relationship

Empirical studies have found that altruism and self-interest are the two primary motivations for enrollment in clinical trials. Some studies have shown that in some cases these two motivations are contingent upon each other, which complicates our understanding of motivation. In this study, we interviewed 27 people with Parkinson's disease about their willingness to enroll in a hypothetical clinical trial. Through inductive, grounded theory analysis of the interview transcripts, we find four different contingent relationships between altruism and self-interest. It is important for ethicists to be aware of these more complex motivations because some are ethically problematic and others not. Moreover, practitioners need to be aware of these contingent relationships so that they can understand the motivations of the research participants.

Crowdfunding success: a systematic literature review 2010–2017

Purpose

The paper takes stock of accumulated knowledge on factors impacting the success of online crowdfunding (CF) campaigns while suggesting opportunities for future research development.

Design/methodology/approach

A Systematic Literature Review of 88 academic papers published between 2010 and 2017. Papers were collected from four academic databases and published in 65 different journals. The review addresses issues related to theory, methods, context, findings and gaps. Overall, the paper presents an analysis of 1,718 associations between 111 aggregated independent variables (from 927 variables) with six main aggregated success indicators.

Findings

Most research involves quantitative analyses of public data collected from reward-CF platforms. More research is required in equity, lending, donation and other CF contexts. Existing studies are mostly anchored in theories of signaling, social capital and elaboration likelihood. There is a need for wider conceptualization of success beyond financial indicators. And based on aggregated summaries of effects, the paper suggests a series of CF success models, while outlining an agenda for future research.

Research limitations/implications

Studied phenomenon is in its early days of existence, and hence biased by the circumstances of a new industry. Moreover, the current review only covers published journal articles in English.

Practical implications

Findings of factors impacting campaign success can inform fundraisers in building campaigns, as well as platforms in adjusting systems and services toward responsibly enhancing campaign success. Moreover, identified gaps can inform on what has not been sufficiently documented and may be a source of competitive advantage.

Originality/value

A comprehensive review of research on CF success factors at factor level, a coherent agenda for future research development and a series of evidence-based models on most prevalent factors impacting CF success by CF model.

Tourism and Altruistic Intention: Volunteer Tourism Development and Self-Interested Value

Volunteer tourism is indisputably an emerging trend in the tourism industry across the globe. Yet, little is known about the altruistic behavior of volunteer travelers. To fill this void, this research explores the convoluted relationships among memorable experience, awareness of problem, social norm, psychological resilience, personal norm, and self-interested value in driving altruistic intention. A field survey was conducted with a quantitative approach. The result reveals that psychological resilience and personal norm are direct determinants of altruistic intention while mediating the influence of awareness of problem and social norm on intention. In addition, memorable experience along with awareness of problem significantly induced volunteer travelers’ psychological resilience. Moreover, the test for metric invariance shows that the relationships between psychological resilience, personal norm, and altruistic intention are under the significant influence of volunteer travelers’ self-interested value. Overall, the variance in altruistic intention for volunteer tourism is satisfactorily explained by our suggested theoretical framework.

Go Pro Bono

Abstract. Crowdfunding enables fundraising of various ventures by collecting money from several donors. We argue that the inclusion of prosocial language contributes to success in this new domain of resource acquisition. In Study 1, we analyzed 164,056 projects from the online crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and found that the higher the percentage of prosocial words employed in a project’s description, the larger the number of investors and the greater the chances of reaching a funding goal. In Study 2 (N = 234), an experimental study, we documented that the use of prosocial words increases the support people thought they would give to a project. Our results indicate that people want to invest their financial resources in ventures that contribute to prosocial goals.