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

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.