Single or Multiple?The Impact of Donation Reference Set on Individual Donation
How to increase individual donations through charitable initiatives has been an ongoing discussion between the academic and philanthropic communities.Existing literature points out that,compared with presenting the donation amount alone,presenting the amount with specific donation references can increase individual do-nations.However,these are different set forms of donation reference in the actual situation,and donation platforms have not reached an effective consensus on how to set donation references.For example,Tencent Public Welfare initiates the"Tree Planter's Haze Battle"proj-ect,and the donation interface is designed as follows:1 wolfberry tree(corresponding to RMB 10),5 wolfberry trees(corresponding to RMB 50),and 10 wolfberry trees(corresponding to RMB 100).The donation reference in this case is designed in a single form(wolfberry tree).The Hainan Chengmei Charity Foundation,on the other hand,designs the donation interface in its project"Fulfilling the Growth Dreams of Mountain Children"as follows:donating a pair of warm winter socks(corresponding to RMB 3),a pair of children's gloves(corresponding to RMB 7),and a school bag(corresponding to RMB 40).The refer-ences in this case are designed in multiple forms(warm winter socks,children's gloves,and school bag).So,compared to the single donation reference set,can multiple donation reference set increase individual donations?This question has not been effectively addressed between the academic and philanthropic communities.Therefore,this study aims to investigate the impact of the donation reference set(single vs.multiple)on individual donations and its underlying mechanism based on the salience theory and figure-group theory.A total of five experiments were conducted in this paper to explore the above research questions.Study 1a aimed to test the effect of the donation reference set on individual donation amounts.Study 1a con-ducted a 2(donation reference set:single vs.multiple)between-sub-jects design and recruited a total of 140 subjects online to participate in the experiment.Study 1b also conducted a 2(donation reference set:single vs.multiple)between-subjects design,which not only replaced the donation appeal materials but also repeated the main effect by set-ting up a field experiment in which subjects were encouraged to make real donations.Study 2 conducted a 3(donation reference set:multiple vs.single vs.baseline)between-subjects design with a total of 160 subjects participating in the experiment.Study 2 added a baseline group to further test the positive effect of the multiple donation ref-erence set,while also ruling out possible explanations about the per-ceived importance of the option.In order to further exclude the inter-ference of the type and number of donation references,Study 3 con-ducted a 3(donation reference set:multiple of"quantity unchanged"vs.multiple of"quantity varied"vs.single)between-subjects design and used labeled gift packages(e.g.,donate RMB 40 to send 1 gift package A for a child)instead of specific donated items(e.g.,donate RMB 40 to send 1 pair of shoes for a child).Study 3 recruited 191 subjects,tested the chain mediation of other-focused attention and spending pain,and ruled out alternative explanations about perceived enrichment,self-expression,perceived corporate effort,and motiva-tion speculation.On this basis,Study 4 further tested the moderating role of mindset.Study 4 collected 193 valid subjects and conducted a 2(donation reference set:single vs.multiple)×2(mindset:local mindset vs.global mindset)between-subjects design.To enhance the generalizability of the findings,the donation appeal materials used in these five experiments cover different donation domains,such as sup-ply assistance,disaster assistance,and so on.The results of this study have found that:(1)multiple(vs.single)donation reference set leads to a higher donation amount.(2)other-focused attention and spending pain serially mediate the effect of donation reference set on individual donations.Specifically,multiple(vs.single)donation reference set enhances individuals'other-focused attention,reduces spending pain,and ultimately triggers higher donation amounts.(3)Mindset moder-ates the above effect.When individuals are primed with local mind-sets,multiple(vs.single)donation reference set increases individu-als'other-focused attention,reduces spending pain,and ultimately triggers higher donation amounts.When individuals are primed with global mindsets,the positive impact of multiple donation reference set on individual donations will be diminished.The current research makes important theoretical contributions.Firstly,this paper enriches the research of individual donations by taking the quantitative setting of donation references into account and investigating the impact of the donation reference set on individual donations.Secondly,this paper reinforces previous research on"single versus multiple"by applying the single/multiple setting to the field of charitable giving.Based on the salience theory and figure-group theory,this paper suggests that multiple(vs.single)donation refer-ence set leads to a higher donation amount by reinforcing the donor's other-focused attention and reducing the sense of spending pain,thus truly offering a new perspective suggesting that multiple form may also have a positive impact.Finally,a large number of researchers have explored the influence of mindset on individual cognition and decision-making behavior.On this basis,this paper invokes the vari-able of mindset in the field of charitable donations,explores the mod-erating effect of mindset,and thus broadens the scope of research on mindset in the field of donation.Moreover,this paper also provides insights for charitable organiza-tions on how to effectively set up donation references.Firstly,in the design of the payment interface,charitable organizations should try to choose multiple items matching the value of the amount as refer-ences,and use multiple donation reference set to increase individual donations.Secondly,when setting up multiple donation reference in the donation interface,charitable organizations should activate in-dividuals'local mindsets,such as informing donors of the donation source,process,and usage,and highlighting the differences between different donation references.Finally,charitable organizations can enhance individual donation by reinforcing the donor's other-focused attention and reducing the sense of spending pain.For example,char-itable organizations can appeal to donors by displaying pictures of the recipients,highlighting the current needs of the recipients with vivid text,so that their attention is less focused on the amount of their payment,thus reducing their sense of spending pain and reinforcing individual donations.
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