Cause Marketing

A study , published in the December 2009 Journal of Marketing Research , found that children’s charities would receive greater donations if they depicted sad-looking children in their appeals. But real-world results show that the research may not be valid, especially for animals. “The working theory,” I wrote in a June 2009 post , “was that people ‘catch’ one another’s emotions…something that’s been shown again and again in many other studies… but which had never been applied to charitable appeals.” “They tested their thesis in a series of experiments, including a behavioral test where they showed subjects randomly-selected charitable appeals and gave them money to give. “In the other tests researchers tried to zero in on the emotional state of the test subjects. “The paper, called ‘The Face of Need,’ was authored by Professor Debora Small of The Wharton School and Nicole Verrochi, a PhD candidate, who openly wonder why charities don’t use sad faces of children more often. “I’ve got a ...

A recent study, published in the Journal of Marketing Research , finds that children’s charities would receive greater donations if they depicted sad-looking children in their appeals. Their working theory was that people ‘catch’ one another’s emotions…something that’s been shown again and again in many other studies… but which had never been applied to charitable appeals. They tested their thesis in a series of experiments, including a behavioral test where they showed subjects randomly-selected charitable appeals and gave them money to give. In the other tests researchers tried to zero in on the emotional state of the test subjects. The paper, called ‘The Face of Need,’ was authored by Professor Debora Small of The Wharton School and Nicole Verrochi, a PhD candidate, who openly wonder why charities don’t use sad faces of children more often. I’ve got a few answers. It’s potentially exploitive. For years some charities have been willing to say, in effect, ‘donate or this child will d...