Working Paper, target journal: Journal of Marketing
This research examines how donation behaviors, such as willingness to donate, donation amounts, and persuasion, vary by the gender of the victim featured in the fundraiser. Using data directly from GoFundMe and experimental designs, we find that donation behavior increases when the victim is a man relative to a woman in need. We find this effect to be robust regardless of emotion displayed in the image of the victim and is driven by feelings of response efficacy. People feel that their donations are more effective when given to a man relative to a woman. Further, we are examining moderating factors such as the context of the need. Currently, data collection is in progress.