HSE Scientists Discover How to Predict Charitable Behaviour Through Physiological Reactions
Researchers at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have investigated how the emotional impact of advertising affects the amount people willing to donate to support animal welfare. To accomplish this, the researchers measured physiological responses such as heart rate, electrodermal activity, and facial expressions in individuals viewing various photos of dogs. The findings indicate that willingness to donate is most accurately predicted by heart rate and facial muscle activation. The study has been published in Social Psychology.
Neuromarketing techniques, which assess audience emotional responses and engagement based on physiological and neural activity, are widely used to evaluate the effectiveness of commercial advertising. However, these techniques are only just beginning to be applied in predicting the success of charitable giving appeals. This type of message is particularly well-suited for neuromarketing approaches, since the decision to donate is often driven by emotions, sometimes without the donor's conscious awareness. In this context, objective methods of assessing emotional states through physiological indicators can uncover subconscious audience reactions, which traditional surveys are unable to detect.
The scientific literature presents conflicting evidence regarding the impact of emotions on donations. This is largely due to methodological limitations, as most previous studies relied on declarative methods, such as surveys and rating scales, where respondents self-reported their feelings. However, study participants are not always able to accurately identify the emotions evoked by charity advertising, or may be unwilling to openly share them, especially when the fundraising goals involve controversial or taboo topics, such as supporting socially marginalised groups. One such topic is the rescue of stray animals.
‘The attitude toward stray dogs in society is mixed; some view them as victims of circumstance, while others see them as a threat. Based on this, we hypothesised that using neuromarketing methods to study the relationship between emotions and charitable behaviour would be particularly relevant in the context of helping these animals,' explains Anna Shepelenko, co-author of the study, Research Fellow at the Centre for Cognition and Decision Making of the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, and participant in the project 'I Choose to Pursue Science,' implemented with support from the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
To explore the potential of using neuromarketing methods to evaluate the effectiveness of charitable appeals, Anna Shepelenko, Vladimir Kosonogov, and Anna Shestakova, Research Fellows at the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, conducted an experiment that comprehensively analysed the relationship between physiological reactions and the motivation to donate. During the experiment, 54 volunteers were shown 32 photos of dogs. After viewing each photo, participants had the option to donate a portion of the money they received for participating in the experiment to support the animal shown. All donations were real, and participants were informed of this in advance. The funds raised were donated to the Giving Hope Fund for homeless pets. Additionally, participants were asked to rate how pleasant or unpleasant they felt about the image and how aroused they were.
During the presentation of the images, the researchers recorded three physiological indicators: heart rate, skin conductance, and facial muscle activity. These indicators enabled the researchers to capture objective signs of emotional states and compare them with the participants' self-reported feelings.
The researchers found a correlation between heart rate, facial muscle movement, and the amount of donations. Unpleasant images that evoked strong emotions caused a greater decrease in heart rate compared to pleasant and neutral ones, and the lower the heart rate, the larger the donation participants were willing to make. Most of the funds were raised by photos that activated the viewer's corrugator supercilii, the muscle responsible for furrowing the brow, which is associated with unpleasant emotions. In contrast, animals whose appearance evoked pleasant emotions, associated with the activity of the zygomaticus major muscle involved in smiling, elicited the smallest donations.
Additionally, the researchers examined how various characteristics of the prospective beneficiaries, such as the animal's age, health, visible signs of being a stray, and the presence of a potential caregiver, might influence donors' emotions and the size of their donations. To this end, the animals in the photographs were shown in various conditions—healthy or sick, domestic or stray, as puppies or adults, and with or without a human nearby. Photos of healthy, domestic dogs proved to be the least effective in soliciting donations, raising the smallest amounts. The researchers' hypothesis that pictures of puppies would elicit the greatest response was not confirmed; the difference in donations between puppies and adult dogs was insignificant. The presence of a human next to an animal also had no impact on charitable behaviour.
'Our findings demonstrate that neuromarketing methods can be a reliable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of charity advertising. Given the ambivalence of society's attitudes toward stray animals, we anticipated some discrepancies between the self-reported emotional data and the physiological reactions measured, but this was not the case. In other words, we found no evidence that the participants were attempting to conceal their true emotions toward the dogs. In the context of a laboratory experiment, participants preferred to donate to animals that evoked strong and unpleasant emotions, as confirmed by both self-reported data and physiological reactions,' according to Anna Shepelenko.
At the same time, she emphasises that the results do not account for the potential effect of avoiding negative information, which may occur with repeated exposure to upsetting content. Therefore, to further study the influence of emotions on prosocial behaviour, additional research is needed that examines donor behaviour over an extended period.
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