Charity running event for homelessness: the framing effects on prosocial behavioral intentions

ABSTRACT

Research questions

What are differential framing effects of promotional messages on participants’ prosocial behavioral intentions in the context of charity running events? Do content richness and plight information play a moderating role?

Research methods

In the first experiment, the authors employed a 2 (message frame: positive vs. negative) x 2 (content richness: rich vs. non-rich) between-subjects design to examine the effects of CRE message frames and richness on prosocial behavioral intentions. In the second experiment, the authors employed a 2 (message frame: positive vs. negative) x 2 (plight information: high vs. low) between-subjects design. The authors recruited two hundred and twenty-three participants (N = 223) for experiment 1 and recruited two hundred twelve (N = 212) participants for experiment 2 via Mturk with compensation of $.75 USD for completing the study.

Results and findings

The results of the first experiment indicated the negatively framed advertising appeal elicited greater prosocial behavioral intentions. In the rich content condition, the negative (vs. positive) frame has a stronger positive effect on behavioral intentions than in the non-rich condition. The second experiment further validated the impact of the negative framing in charity advertising in the low plight condition.

Implications

The findings of the current study contribute to the charity sport event literature and provide important insights for managers when promoting their cause-related events.

KEYWORDS:

• Charity running events
• homelessness
• framing effect
• prosocial behaviors
• prospect theory
• attribution theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).