Too Painful to Donate: Why Don’t People Donate to Critical Illness Campaigns?
Prof. Jingjing Ma
Associate Professor with Tenure,
National School of Development, Peking University
Date: 29 April 2025 (Tuesday)
Time: 10:30 to 12:00
Venue: E22-G004
Host: Prof. Kao SI, Associate Professor in Marketing
Abstract
Charitable donations are increasingly shifting to online fundraising platforms, where numerous campaigns are displayed simultaneously. This research examines the role of campaign titles in attracting online traffic in this competitive environment, focusing specifically on a major category of medical fundraising. While fundraisers commonly include the names of critical illnesses in campaign titles (CI-titles), our findings suggest that this practice can negatively impact donation performance. A series of seven studies—combining secondary data, field and controlled experiments—provides robust evidence for this undesirable CI-title effect. Moreover, three studies offer mediation and moderation evidence showing that anticipated distress drives this effect. Donors tend to avoid CI-titled campaigns, opting instead for alternatives that still allow them to express empathy. However, this effect diminishes when non-distress cues are present or when justifiable alternatives are absent. This research contributes to the literature on prosocial behavior and title effect, offering important practical implications for fundraisers.
Speaker
Prof. Jingjing Ma is an Associate Professor with tenure at National School of Development at Peking University. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from Kellogg School of Management in 2015. Her research focuses on judgment and decision making. Her studies utilize laboratory and field experiments, and leverage physiological methods and big data analytics. Her primary research area is understanding the benefits and pitfalls of the maximizing mindset and associated psychological mechanisms. She also conducts research to understand how to foster socially beneficial behavior. Her research has appeared in major journals such as Journal of Consumer Research , Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology , and Harvard Business Review. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, World Economic Forum, BBC, Washington Post, Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Quartz.
All are welcome!
