“悲”天悯人,还是“乐”善好施:受助者困境态度效价与心理距离对捐赠意愿的交互影响  

Negative Appeal to Evoke Sympathy or Positive Appeal to Trigger Inspiration?The Interactive Impact of the Valence of Recipient’s Attitude toward Plight and Psychological Distance on Donation Intentions

作　　者：刘新燕[1] 张惠天 王璐 Liu Xinyan;Zhang Huitian;Wang Lu(Zhongnan University of Economics and Law;Hong Kong Baptist University,China)

机构地区：[1]中南财经政法大学工商管理学院 [2]香港浸会大学商学院,中国香港

出　　处：《南开管理评论》2023年第2期48-60,共13页Nankai Business Review

基　　金：国家自然科学基金项目(72002222)资助。

摘　　要：受助者困境态度是消极(“悲”天悯人)还是积极(“乐”善好施)才能使潜在捐赠者更加伸出援助之手,是捐赠领域十分关注但在研究结论上却存在分歧的重要问题。本研究基于捐赠决策过程和心理距离理论,探讨了受助者困境态度效价与心理距离对捐赠意愿的交互作用。四个实验使用了不同的操控手段和捐赠呼吁主题,结果发现:当个体与受助者心理距离较近时,人们会更愿意捐赠给呈现消极困境态度的受助者;反之,心理距离远时,人们会更愿意捐赠给呈现积极困境态度的受助者。本研究从捐赠者决策过程的角度出发,进一步发现了上述效应中“视角→情绪”的内在机制。具体而言,当捐赠者和受助者之间心理距离较近,捐赠者在认知上会采取受助者视角,更加关注消极受助者困境态度的帮助需要,这进一步加强了捐赠者的同情,进而增强其捐赠意愿;而当捐赠者和受助者距离相对较远,捐赠者在认知上会采用自我视角,更加关注受助者积极困境态度给自我带来的积极情绪体验,这进一步加强了捐赠者感受到的鼓舞,由此促进其捐赠意愿。Currently,online charitable platforms often use two different tactics to promote people’s donations in donation appeal ads.One tactic is to present negative information that aims to evoke sympathy from potential donors and leads to more donation(i.e.,“negative”appeal to evoke sympathy),while the other is to present positive information that aims to inspire potential donors to give(i.e.,“positive”appeal to trigger inspiration).However,which strategy(i.e.,negative appeal or positive appeal)is more effective in promoting donation?Researchers have engaged in intense discussions,but so far have not reached a consistent conclusion.Given that negative appeals highlight the severity of the problem and the urgency of the need,some researchers have suggested that they may raise more donations than positive ones.By contrast,others have argued that positive appeals are more likely to increase donation than negative ones because the former stimulates positive emotions,which positively influences prosocial behaviors.One of the very underlying reasons for the divergent conclusions is that existing research have not extracted another important valence from the concept of donation appeal valence:the recipient’s attitude valence(i.e.,the recipient’s negative or positive attitude toward current plight).In fact,many donation appeals contain such information,which plays an important role in the donor’s understanding of the recipient's background.Therefore,it is important for charities to know how to disclose information about consumers’attitudes toward current plight.To bridge this gap,this research investigates in which context negative(positive)attitude is more effective in promoting donations than the other.Building upon the donation decision process and psychological distance theory,we find that recipient attitude valence and psychological distance have important effects on consumers’donation intentions.The four studies consistently suggest that when potential donors perceive psychologically close to the recip

关 键 词：受助者困境态度 心理距离 认知视角 同情 鼓舞 慈善营销 

分 类 号：B842[哲学宗教—基础心理学] D632.9[哲学宗教—心理学]