Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of emotional charity appeals

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Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of

emotional charity appeals emotional charity appeals

Choi Jungsil

Cleveland State University

Yexin Jessica Li

University of Kansas

Priyamvadha Rangan

State University of New York College at Brockport

Bingqin Yin

John Carroll University

, [email protected]

Surendra N. Singh

University of Kansas

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Jungsil, Choi; Li, Yexin Jessica; Rangan, Priyamvadha; Yin, Bingqin; and Singh, Surendra N., "Opposites

attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness of emotional charity appeals" (2020).

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Opposites attract: Impact of background color on effectiveness

of emotional charity appeals

☆

The present work utilizes research on context effects and color psychology to investigate how

background color can enhance the effectiveness of positive and negative charity appeals. Five

experiments measuring both actual donations and donation intention examine the hypothesis

that a negative charity appeal against an orange (vs. blue) background and a positive charity

appeal against a blue (vs. orange) background will increase donations. We propose that this

is because blue and orange colors are incongruous with positive and negative charity appeals,

respectively, due to the affective valences of the appeals and the perceptions of warmth and

coldness cued by the background colors. This incongruity enhances the attention people pay

to the charity appeals, thereby strengthening their emotional response to the appeals, which

increases charitable donations. When attention is manipulated, people who pay a high (vs.

low) level of attention to the charity appeal are more likely to donate regardless of the color

and valence of the appeal, suggesting attention is an important antecedent to the intensity of

the emotional response and subsequent donation behavior. We also identify affect diagnosticity

as a boundary condition for the effect – when people are informed that color affects their emo-

tions, the contextual effect of color disappears.

Keywords:

Donations

Color psychology

Prosocial behavior

Charity appeals

Emotions

1. Introduction

There are over 1.5 million nonproﬁt organizations in the United States (National Center for Charitable Statistics, 2017)

that cumulatively raised $390 billion in 2016, with 72% of the contributions coming from individual donors ( Giving USA

Foundation, 2017). The demand for help from non proﬁts is gr owing (White & Peloza, 2009), making it increasingly impor-

tant for these organizations to enhance the effectiveness of their donation requests. At the same ti me, consumers are ex-

posed to far greater amounts of information than ever bef ore. For example, adults in the United States spent 1 0 h and

54 min a day processing information across various media pl atforms (digital, audio and television) in the second quarter

of 2017 (Nielsen Company, 2017). In today's image-laden, visually evocative media environment, it is cri tical for nonproﬁt

marketers to identify novel and effective ways to attract potential donors. We posit that the strategic use of background

color in emotional charity a ppeals will help marketers achieve this goal by enhanc ing potential donors' attention to the ap-

peals and bolstering dona tion behavior.

Although color is ubiquitous and fundamental to human perception, and color choice an ever-present consideration in adver-

tising, “little academic research has investigated the role that color plays in marketing” (Labrecque & Milne, 2012, p. 711). Further,

there is “limited research on the inﬂuence of color on consumer purchases” (Bagchi&Cheema,2013,p.948). Importantly, differ-

ent colors are shown to evoke distinct positive or negative emotional responses in the viewer (e.g., Karp & Karp, 2001; Palmer,

Schloss, Xu, & Prado-León, 2013). We contend that when charity appeals whose messages (i.e., text and images) evoke either pos-

itive or negative emotions are displayed against colored backgrounds that also trigger positive or negative emotions, congruent or

incongruent effects will occur. This will either enhance or mitigate the emotional responses to these appeals, thereby inﬂuencing

donation behavior.

Across ﬁve studies, we explore whether people pay variable attention to emotional charity appeals depending on whether they

are combined with colored backgrounds that are emotionally congruent or incongruent with the appeal, and determine whether

this differential processing of the visual stimuli has any impact on donation behavior in both lab and ﬁeld settings. Next, we in-

vestigate whether attention enhances emotional responses to the charity appeal, and whether this, in turn, increases donation be-

havior. Further, we investigate the hypothesized attention-driven mechanism by directly manipulating attention level, and

examine whether people in a high (vs. low) attention level are more likely to donate by responding to emotional appeals regard-

less of the joint effect of colors and charity appeals. Lastly, we explore whether the impact of emotions on donation decision mak-

ing holds when potential donors are made aware of the source of their affect.

This research has both theoretical and practical implications. In today's visually laden media environment, it is critical for ads to

cut through the clutter and gain consumers' attention. This research identiﬁes a novel mechanism by which nonproﬁtmarketers

can direct visual attention to their donation appeals, optimize the persuasiveness of their message and enhance their fundraising

effectiveness. The results further our understanding of visual cues and their interaction with emotional content, and contribute to

research on color psychology and the broader charitable giving literature.

2. Theoretical background

2.1. Charity appeals, emotions, and helping behavior

Charity appeals are often crafted with the distinct goal of inﬂuencing viewers' emotions (Isen & Noonberg, 1979; Small &

Verrochi, 2009; Thornton, Kirchner, & Jacobs, 1991). Both positive and negative emotions increase benevolence when compared

to a neutral emotional state, with stronger emotions generally eliciting stronger helping responses (Cialdini , Baumann, &

Kenrick, 1981; Krebs, 1970). Negative appeals, such as those featuring a crying child and a heart-wrenching story, can increase

donations by eliciting strong negative emotions in the viewer (Bagozzi & Moore, 1994; Small & Verrochi, 2009). An abundance

of literature ﬁnds that negative emotions increase helping behavior, either because the observer wishes to improve the welfare

of others (altruistic motivation) or to relieve one's own intense feelings of sadness (egoistic motivation) (Batson, Duncan,

Ackerman, Buckley, & Birch, 1981; Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973). For example, Cialdini et al. (1987) found that enhancing feel-

ings of sadness in an observer leads to an increase in helping behavior due to the observer's egoistic desire to relieve his or her

negative affective state. Work by Batson et al. (1989) suggests that sadness increases helping behavior in the observer because

it engenders the altruistic goal of relieving another's distress.

In contrast, positive charity appeals increase helping behavior by evoking positive emotions in the viewer (Cunningham,

Steinberg, & Grev, 1980

). Positive charity appeals typically showcase happy faces and hopeful, heartfelt messages (e.g., an ad for

the Red Cross featuring a picture of a smiling child along with an uplifting statement, “your donation brings hope.”)Positiveemo-

tions may increase donation behavior for several reasons. The mood-maintenance hypothesis suggests that people engage in

prosocial behavior because they are motivated to maintain their levels of elevated affect (Clark & Isen, 198 2; Isen & Levin,

1972) whereas the concomitance hypothesis states that positive emotions inﬂuence helping indirectly through other processes,

such as an increased liking of others and greater feelings of optimi sm and control (Cialdini, Kenrick, & Baumann, 1982;

Manucia, Baumann, & Cialdini, 1984).

Bot h positive and negative emotions increase h elping behavior and the focus of this research is not to compare their rel-

ative effectiveness. Rather, our objec tive is to examine whether adding a contextual cu e to an emotional appeal can increase

attention and the intensity of the ex perienc ed emotion. Dispa rate images have been used as contextual cues in charity ap-

peals to enhance emotions and promote prosocial behavior (Grinstein, Hagtvedt, & Kronrod, 2019). Speciﬁcally, when the

visual portion of a charity (print) appeal simultaneous ly features an image of a v isually appealing en tity (person or object)

against the backdrop of a displeasing visual of a group of entities, the visual cues enhance both empathy and the resultant

pro social behavior.

Since both positive and negative emotions e licited by a charity appeal lead to g reater helping behavior and persuasion effec-

tiveness, enhancing emotions of either positive or nega tiv e valence should lead to a rise in the resulting donations. In the next

section, we discuss a visual contextual cue that can enhance the emo tions elicited by positive and negative appeals.

2.2. Color-emotion associations and schema incongruity

Colors are a critical component of visual perception. Research in consumer behavior has uncovered important ways in which

colors can inﬂuence attention, cognition, motivation and behavior (Bagchi & Cheema, 2013; Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Sengupta, &

Tripathi, 2004; Labrecque, Patrick, & Milne, 2013). For instance, color (vs. black-and-white) induces people to pay attention to con-

crete (vs. abstract) aspects of the stimulus due to its association with low-level construal (Lee, Deng, Unnava, & Fujita, 2014). In

addition, consumers deduce better product quality from a color (vs. black-and-white) ad when they are not motivated to process

the ad. But, when highly motivated to process the ad, consumers will rate the advertised product less favorably in the color (vs.

black-and-white) condition, if processing the ad claims is resource-demanding (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1995). Research on dis-

crete colors shows that they inﬂuence motivation differently depending on the context. Red activates aggression in a competition

context (Bagchi & Cheema, 2013), approach motivation in a relational context (Ellio t & Niesta, 2008), and avoidance motivation in

a performance context (Elliot, Maier, Moller, Friedman, & Meinhardt, 2007; Mehta & Zhu, 2009) due to the learned association be-

tween a color and its meaning in the particular context.

Previous st udies also show that different colors are cognitively linked to different emotions (e.g., Karp & Karp, 2001;

McMenamin et al., 2013; Palmer et al., 2013). One study showed that, out of 37 colors, orange is most highly correlated with

the concept of happiness (Palmer et al., 2013), while another study by the same authors found that orange is more likely to be

associated with happy faces than with neutral or sad ones. Moreover, in an investigation of whether colors serve as a diagnostic

feature for discriminating emotional and non-emotional objects, positively-valenced images were shown to contain more “reddish-

yellow” (i.e., orange) hues than non-emotional images (McMenamin et al., 2013).

In contrast, evidence points to a strong link between the color blue and sadness. Blue is one of the lowest-rated colors on the

emotion-pleasure scale (happy, satisﬁed, cheerful, hopeful, and surprised) (Schifferstein & Tanudjaja, 2004), and blue-violet is

equated with sadness in participants' color proﬁles of mood states (Levy, 1984). Fourth graders who were presented with a list

of emotions and asked to write down the ﬁrst color that comes to mind when the emotion is given indicated that blue is most

often associated with sadness (Karp & Karp, 2001). The association between color and emotion can also be found in pop culture

references, such as the 2015 movie “Inside Out,” in which blue represents sadness. As a result, we propose that a positive charity

appeal is congruent with the color orange and a negative charity appeal is congruent with the color blue.

Additionally, different colors are associated with different perceptions of physical temperature. The conventional associations in

a culture link some colors to cooling sensations and others to warming sensations. In general, colors like red and orange are per-

ceived to be extremely warm and blue is perceived to be the least warm (Fenko, Hendrik, & Schifferstein, 2010). Orange is rated

warmest and blue coldest in a semantic association task (Sivik & Taft, 1989). As such, strong correlations exist between perceived

warmth and visual exposure to warm colors (e.g., orange) and perceived coldness and visual exposure to cool colors (e.g., blue).

Further, researchers have uncovered a relationship between temperature perceptions and affective states, with negative affective

states (e.g., stress, anxiety, etc.) lowering perceptions of temperature, and positive affective states (e.g., relaxation, security, etc.)

raising it (Boudewyns, 1976; Crawford, Friesen, & Tomlinson-Keasey, 1977).

Based on the aforementioned research, we suggest that a congruency exists in terms of emotional valence and color. Speciﬁ-

cally, we expect that a negative charity appeal that induces negative emotions will be more congruent with blue due to its asso-

ciations with sadness and coldness, whereas a positive charity appeal will be more congruent with orange becaus e of its

association with warmth and happiness. A pilot test was conducted to test this hypothesis. One-hundred and three participants

age

= 33.0 years; 62 males and 41 females) were recruited online for a 2 (color: blue, orange) × 2 (appeal: positive, negative)

experiment (see Supplementary material). Participants indicated the degree to which they perceived incongruity between the

color and the appeal (i.e., “the message and picture in the ad did not match the background color of the ad,”“something was

odd about the design of the ad,” strongly disagree (1)–strongly agree (7); r =0.75,p b .001). An ANOVA revealed a signiﬁcant

interaction of color and appeal type such that people saw the incongruent combinations as more incongruent than the congruent

ones, F(1, 99) = 8.36, p b .01. That is, a positive appeal against a blue background was perceived to be more incongruent than a

positive appeal against an orange background (M

blue

=3.64vs.M

orange

= 2.65; F(1, 99) = 4.32, p b .05). Likewise, a negative ap-

peal against an orange background was perceived to be more incongruent than a negative appeal against a blue background

orange

=4.13vs.M

blue

= 3.15; F(1, 99) = 4.04, p b .05).

2.3. Stimulus incongruence, attention and emotion

People consider incongruent information to be more informative and give it more weight than congruent information (Crocker,

Hannah, & Weber, 1983; Fiske, Kinder, & Larter, 1983). Advertisements that are incongruent with an elicited schema draw more

attention because the unanticipated or unusual information motivates people to resolve the incongruence (Goodstein, 1993;

Moore, Stammerjohan, & Coulter, 2005). When information is congruent with expectations, people pay less attention to it and

do not engage in deeper, conscious processing to conserve cognitive resources (Fiske et al., 1983; Machleit, Allen, & Madden,

1993). We therefore expect people to pay more attention to an incongruent (vs. congruent) combination of charity appeal and

color.

Past research suggests that emotions are elicited based upon a person's subjective appraisal of occurrences or objects in the

surrounding environment, and that attention is necessary to evoke an emotional response to a stimulus (e.g., Okon-Singer ,

Tzelgov, & Henik, 2007; Scherer, 1999; Vuilleumier, Armony, Driver, & Dolan, 2003). Eimer, Holmes, and McGlone (2003) argue

that the detection and processing of emotional information requires attention and show that when one's attention is drawn

away from an emotion-laden stimulus, the stimulus-speciﬁc emotional effects are eliminated. Additionally, people under high and

moderate attentional loads express low affective reactions (Pessoa, McKenna, Gutierrez, & Ungerleider, 2002; Pessoa, Padmala, &

Morland, 2005), which indicates that emotional reactions are less likely to occur when people do not pay sufﬁcient attention to

the stimulus.

We posit that incongruence from an opposite-valenced contextual stimulus (i.e., negative appeal-orange background or pos-

itive a ppeal-blue background) will draw more attention, thereby intensifying affective responses to the positive or negative

charity appe al and increasing prosocial behavior. This position is in accord with Mandler (1982), who suggests that emotional

responses are intensi ﬁed by somewhat incongruent conditions rather than congruent conditions. It also comports with ﬁndings

demonstrating that strong positive and negative emotions increase advertising effectiveness and helping behavior (Burke &

Edell, 1989; Edell & Burke, 1987; MacKenzie, Lutz, & Belch, 1986). In sum, we predict a moderated serial mediation effect,

such that charity appeal and color interact to increase donations by accentuating viewers' emotional responses through en-

han ced attent ion. We focus our investiga tio n on two colors – orange a nd blue – that have been linked to positive and ne gative

affect and warmth and coldness, respectively.

Formally, we make the following hypotheses:

H1. A positive (negative) appeal with a blue (orange) background will elicit greater donations than a positive (negative) appeal

with an orange (blue) background.

H2. The relationship between appeal-type and color on donations will be mediated by enhancement of (1) attention and (2) emo-

tional intensity.

2.4. Boundary condition

Research suggests affect diagnosticity, or awareness that emotions are inﬂuenced by an external source, may be a boundary

condition for our hypothesized effects (Di Muro & Murray, 2012; Kim, Park, & Schwarz, 2010; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). The impact

of excitement and peacefulness on product evaluations is erased when people are made aware that their mood is inﬂuenced by

the mood-induction task they performed (Kim et al., 2010), and participants who are made aware that music affects their emo-

tions no longer choose products based on the music they hear (Di Muro & Murray, 2012). We thus propose that the effect of

color on the effectiveness of charity appeals will be signiﬁcantly reduced when people are made aware that their emotions may

be inﬂuenced by color cues.

H3. Awareness that color can inﬂuence emotions will signiﬁcantly reduce the effect of color on the effectivenes s of charity

appeals.

Five studies were conducted to test our hypotheses. Studies 1–1 (lab setting) an d 1–2(ﬁeld study) measured how actual

donation behavior was affected by the interactio n of background color and appeal typ e. Study 2 investigated the mediating

role of attention and emotions on the relationship between incongruency and donation intention. Study 3 experimentally

manipulated attention, thereby strengthening the abili ty to infer causality from attention to donation (Pirlott &

MacKinnon, 2016). Finally, Study 4 examined whet her the effect of incongruent backgroun d color on donation behavior dis -

appears when people are made aware of the source of their emotions. In all studies (except study 1–2), people p articipated

for monetary c ompensa tion. Participants were randomly assigned to various conditions , and the data were collected in the

ﬁeld, computer lab o r Amazon's MTurk. In all studies, saturation and lumin ance (perceived brightness) were kept constant;

the colors differed only in their hues. Charity appeals were adapted from actual advertisements for the follo wing charities:

Salvation Army, Save the Children and World Help. Exit interviews revealed that no participants guessed the true purpose of

the studies.

3. Study 1–1

Study 1–1 was designed to test the central hypothesis that the effectiveness of positive and negative charity appeals on dona-

tion behavior depends on the background color of the charity advertisement (i.e., orange vs. blue). Speciﬁcally, we hypothesized

that incongruent color-appeal combinations will lead to greater donations than congruent ones (H1).

3.1. Participants and method

Seventy-seven college students (M

age

= 21.4 years; 43 males, 34 females) from a large public university in the Midwest par-

ticipated in the study. They were randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 (appeal: positive vs. negative) × 2 (color: orange vs. blue)

between-subjects design. Both positive and negative appeals were adapted from those used by Save the Children, a nonproﬁtthat

helps supply food, health care, and education to children in 120 countries (see Supplementary material).

We choose to use orange instead of red because, although the latter color possesses longer wavelengths, it is also associated with schemas that are undesirable such

as threat, anger, and aggression (Pryke, 2009). Further, orange has the added beneﬁt of being an optimal contrast to blue, as they are opposing colors in well-established

color models (Fehrman & Fehrman, 2004).

Apretestconﬁrmed that the appeals elicited the intended emotions (see Appendix A for details). In the main experiment, the

positive and negative charity appeals were presented against an orange background (hue = 15, saturation = 239, luminance (per-

ceived brightness) = 128, transparency: 90%) or a blue background (hue = 170, saturation = 239, luminance = 128, transpar-

ency: 90%).

Participants ﬁrst completed an unrelated half-hour marketing survey, for which they expected to receive a $10

payment. After completing that survey, they were presented with the charity advertisement on their computer screens. They an-

swered a few questions about the charity, including their familiarity with the Save the Children organization (1 = “not at all fa-

miliar,” 5=“very familiar”) because previous research shows familiarity with a brand or product is an important determinant of

attitudes, behavioral intentions, and purchase likelihood (e.g., Laroche, Kim, & Zhou, 1996). At the end of the study, participants

were asked if they would like to donate any part of their payment ($0–$10) to the charity, with the assurance that any contribu-

tion they made would be strictly voluntary and conﬁdential. As they left the lab, participants received empty envelopes to place

the money they pledged to the charity (this money was then donated to Save the Children).

3.2. Results and discussion

A 2 (appeal: positive vs. negative) × 2 (color: orange vs. blue) between-subjects ANCOVA was conducted with donation

amount as the dependent variable and charity familiarity as a covariate (exclusion of this covariate does not change any of the

results). The analysis revealed a signiﬁcant interaction of color and appeal (F(1, 72) = 9.39, p b .01). Pairwise comparisons showed

that people donated almost three times more money after reading the negative appeal against the orange background than the

blue background ($4.16 vs. $1.76; F(1, 72) = 4.25, p b .05). The effect was reversed for the positive appeal; donations were sig-

niﬁcantly higher for the blue background than the orange background ($4.31 vs. $1.63; F(1, 72) = 5.21, p b .05) (Fig. 1). No main

effects were found (ps N .1, respectively). Familiarity with the organization did not have an impact on donation amount (F(1,

72) b 1, p N .1).

The results of Study 1–1 show that incongruent appeals (i.e., negative appeal against an orange background/positive appeal

against a blue background) are more effective at eliciting donations than congruent ones, which supports Hypothesis 1.

4. Study 1–2

Study 1–2 attempted to replicate the results of 1–1intheﬁeld to enhance external validity. We partnered with the Salvation

Army and launched a Back to School Supplies email campaign. The ﬁeld study employed a 2 (appeal: positive vs. negative) × 2

(colors: blue vs. orange) between-subjects design.

4.1. Materials

4.1.1. Mailing list

A mailing list with 10,528 people (out of a total county population of approximately 118,000 people) was acquired. The mailing

list contained each person's name, email, address, age, and income. We ﬁrst sorted the mailing list by income categories (below

$50,000, $50,001–$74,999, $75,000–$99,999, and above $100,000). One-fourth of the participants were randomly selected from

each income category and placed into one of the four charity appeal conditions. We used the same color system as study 1–1(or-

ange background: hue = 15, saturation = 239, luminance = 128 and blue background: hue = 170, saturation = 239,

luminance = 128). In each condition, 2632 people were randomly assigned to receive one of the four B

ack to School Supplies do-

nation request email newsletters.

We created different background colors using the HSL model (Hue, Saturation, and Luminance or Perceived Brightness) and Transparency, which are provided in

the PowerPoint color system.

$1.76

$4.16

$4.31

$1.63

$0.00

$1.00

$2.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

Positive Negative

Orange

Blue

Fig. 1. Interaction of color and message on donation behavior (study 1–1).

4.1.2. Donation request email newsletters' content

Four versions of donation request email newsletters were created through an email marketing software—Constant Contact—to

correspond to the four charity appeal conditions (see Supplementary material).

4.1.3. Pretest

A pretest was conducted to ensure that the ads elicited the intended emotions. The results showed that the positive ad was

indeed rated more positive (p b .001) and happy (p b .001) than the negative ad. The negative ad was rated more negative

(p b .001) and sad (p b .001) than the positive ad (see Appendix B).

4.1.4. Pictures used in donation request email newsletter

To enhance the positive and negative effects of the charity appeals, we purchased and incorporated stock images from an on-

line vendor in the appeals.

4.1.5. Online donation links and other donation options

A “DONATE HERE” button was created with one of four distinct donation links that corresponded to the four appeal conditions.

Interested donors could click on the button and be directed to the donation website. Donors could also choose to send a check to

the Salvation Army at the address listed on each appeal.

4.1.6. Campaign duration

To increase response rate, ﬁve rounds of emails were sent to the same participants in each condition (July 18th, 2017–August

9th, 2017).

4.1.7. Average donation per click

Given the uniqueness of an email campaign, where feedback sometimes shows that an email was opened even if it wasn't

(e.g., in Gmail, there is a function to mark all emails as read), we computed average donation by dividing the total donation

amount by the number of clicks on the donation button for each condition.

4.2. Results and discussion

4.2.1. Total donation amount

We received a total of $775. The negative-orange appeal generated the most donations ($350, range: $50 to $100), followed by

the negative-blue appeal ($175, range: $25 to $100), the positive-orange appeal ($150, range: $50 to $100) and ﬁnally the

positive-blue appeal ($100, range: $25 to $50).

4.2.2. Average donation per click

Results from a two-way (color × appeal) ANOVA showed a marginally signiﬁcant interaction (F(1, 39) = 3.01, p = .09). Pairwise

comparisons revealed that people who saw the negative- orange appeal donated signiﬁcantly more than people who saw the

negative-blue appeal (M

negative+orange

=$50.00,M

negative+blue

=$14.58,F(1, 39) = 7.16, p = .01). However, average donations be-

tween people who saw the positive-orange appeal and those who saw the positive-blue appeal did not differ (M

positive+orange

10.71, M

positive+blue

= $10.00, F(1, 39) b 1). There was also a main effect of appeal type. Replicating previous research (e.g., Small

& Verroch i, 2009), negative appeals elicited more donations than positive appeals (M

negative

=$32.29,M

positive

=$10.36,F(1,

39) = 4.81, p = .03). Finally, results indicated a marginally signiﬁcant main effect of background color; people donated more to

the appeals against the orange background than the ones against blue background (M

orange

= $30.36 M

blue

= $12.29, F(1, 39) =

3.27, p b .08). (see Fig. 2).

The results of study 1–2 differ from those of 1–1 and provide only partial support for Hypothesis 1. In study 1–1, we used char-

ity appeals from international nonproﬁt organizations that showed children in need from underdeveloped countries. Victims in

$10.71

$50.00

$10.00

$14.58

$0.00

$20.00

$40.00

$60.00

$80.00

$100.00

Positive Negative

Orange

Blue

Fig. 2. Interaction of color and message on donation behavior (study 1–2theﬁeld experiment).

study 1–1 appeared needy because of their circumstances, regardless of whether they looked happy or sad. However, in study 1–2,

we created our own appeals in conjunction with a U.S. based non-proﬁt. It proved extremely difﬁcult to ﬁnd an appropriate image

of a child who appeared both happy and needy. Considerable research suggests that perceived neediness is critical in eliciting do-

nations (e.g., Fisher & Ma, 2014). We suspect that the non-signiﬁcant results in the positive appeal condition might be due to the lack

of persuasiveness of the image itself—the victim portrayed in the image might not have been perceived to be needy enough. Indeed, a

brief posttest (M

age

= 35.8 years, 26 males and 34 females) shows a signiﬁcant difference in “perceived need for help

” between the

positive appeal used in this study and those used in our other studies (M

ﬁeld study

=3.52vs.M

study 1–1

=5.04,M

study 2

= 4.71, and

study 4

=5.04;ps b .05). In addition, this is the only charity appeal in which the victim's perceived need is below the midpoint of

the scale (t(59) = −2.45, p = .017). Therefore, the average donation amount was not signiﬁcantly different between the people

who read the two positive appeals.

5. Study 2

The results of studies 1–1 and 1–2 provide some support for the notion that background color moderates the effectiveness of

positive and negative charity appeals. Study 2 examines the underlying mechanism for this effect. We hypothesize that incongru-

ent color-appeal combinations increase donations by intensifying emotional responses to the ad. We expect that pairing blue with

a positive appeal will accentuate positive emotions, whereas pairing orange with a negative appeal will increase negative emo-

tions, and that this emotion-accentuation will lead to greater charitable donations. To test this hypothesis, we designed positive

and negative appeals for World Help, a nonproﬁt organization devoted to providing humanitarian, medical, and educational assis-

tance to children living in impoverished areas. We also included a neutral white background to see whether incongruent color-

appeal combinations signiﬁcantly increase donations relative to this control.

5.1. Participants and method

Two-hundred and thirty-nine participants (M

age

= 36.1 years; 121 males and 118 females) were recruited online. The exper-

iment had a 2 (appeal: positive and negative) × 3 (colors: blue, orange, and white) between-subjects design, and participants

were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions.

The stimuli for this study were adapted from existing charity appeals by World Help. The positive appeal consisted of a picture

of a smiling child with the caption “Healthy Children, Happy World” and a statement about the importance of proper nutrition.

The negative appeal contained an image of a sad, malnourished child with the caption “Hungry Children, Hopeless World,” with

information about the current food crisis. We decolored the picture of the child to avoid any possible confounding interaction ef-

fects between the color of the image and the background color of the ad (see Supplementary material).

We conducted a pretest to determine whether the appeals would elicit the intended emotions. The results revealed that pos-

itive appeal was rated more positive (p b .001) and happy (p b .001) than the negative appeal. The negative appeal was rated

more negative (p b .001) and sad (p b .001) than the positive appeal (see Appendix C for details).

In the main study, participants viewed the appeal on blue (Hue: 170, Saturation: 239, Luminance: 128), orange (Hue: 15, Sat-

uration: 239, Luminance: 128), or white backgrounds with matching font colors (black font was used for the white background).

Immediately after viewing the charity appeal, participants reported the degree to which they felt ﬁve positive (pleasant, happy,

hopeful, positive, cheerful; α = 0.94) and ﬁve negative (sad, guilty, remorseful, pessimistic, unhappy; α = 0.83) emotions on a

nine-point scale (1 = not at all, 9 = very much). Next, participants indicated their intention to donate to World Help on three

items: “How likely are you to make a donation to this organization in the future?”, “Howlikelyareyoutoparticipateindonation

to the organization in the future?” and “How likely are you to get more information about how to participate in donation?” (1 =

not at all to 7 = extremely; α = 0.97; modiﬁed from Bagozzi & Moore, 1994 and Basil, Ridgway, & Basil, 2008). Then, they were

asked how much attention they paid to the stimulus on a three-item, bipolar nine-point scale (How much attention did you pay to

the charity appeal? No attention (1)/Complete attention (9); How attention-grabbing do you think the charity appeal is? Not at all

(1)/Extremely (9); How effective do you think the charity appeal is? Not at all (1)/Extremely (9); α = 0.74). Finally, participants

were asked about their familiarity with the charity (1 = not at all familiar to 5 = very familiar) and their demographic informa-

tion. Given the prohibitive costs of using actual donations and the high correlation between behavioral intention and behavior

(e.g., Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988), only donation intention was measured in this study.

5.2. Results and discussion

5.2.1. Intention to donate

A 2 (appeal) × 3 (color) ANCOVA with familiarity with the organization as a covariate revealed a main effect of familiarity (F(1,

232) = 8.68, p b .01) and a signiﬁcant interaction of color and appeal on intention to donate (F(2, 232) = 6.37, p b .01). Pairwise

comparisons showed that intention to donate was higher for the negative appeal when it appeared against the orange background

than the blue background or the white background (ps b .05) (see Table 1).

However, there was no signiﬁcant difference between

the blue background and the white background (p N .99). In contrast, intention to donate was greatest for the positive appeal

This is measured by a four-items, seven-point scale (i.e., please rate the extent to which the need for help for the children portrayed in the appeal is (1) signiﬁcant

(2) severe (3) devastating (4) distressing, all alphas (α) N 0.95)

when it appeared against the blue background than the orange or the white background (ps b .05) (see Table 1). There was no

signiﬁcant difference between the orange background and the white background for the positive appeal (p N .99) (Fig. 3).

5.2.2. Positive emotions

A 2 × 3 ANOVA revealed a main effect of appeal type, whereby the positive appeal elicited more positive emotion than the

negative appeal, F(1, 232) = 280.36, p b .001. This main effect should be interpreted in light of a signiﬁcant interaction between

appeal type and background color, F(2, 232) = 5.77, p b .01. Participants reported feeling more positive after seeing the positive

appeal against the blue background than the orange background or the white background (ps b .01) (see Table 2). There was no

signiﬁcant difference in positive emotions between the orange and white backgrounds (p N .99). In addition, background color did

not inﬂuence ratings of positive emotions for the negative appeal (M

negative-blue

=1.67vs.M

negative-orange

= 1.85; M

negative-neutral

2.00; F(2, 232) b 1).

5.2.3. Negative emotions

Another 2 × 3 ANOVA on negative emotions revealed a main effect of appeal type whereby people felt more negative after

reading the negative appeal than the positive appeal F(1, 232) = 87.50, p b .001. There was also a signiﬁcant interaction between

color and appeal, F(2, 232) = 4.28, p b .05. Negative emotions were higher for the negative appeal when it appeared against the

orange background than the blue or the white background (ps b .05) (see Table 3). There was no difference between the blue and

white background (p N .99). Negative emotions did not vary by background color for the positive appeal (M

positive-orange

=3.56vs.

positive-blue

=3.83vs.M

positive-neutral

= 3.92; F(2, 232) b 1).

5.2.4. Attention

A 2 × 3 ANOVA revealed a main effect of appeal type, such that people paid more attention to the negative appeal than the

positive one F(1, 232) = 7.80, p b .01. There was a marginal main effect of color, whereby colored appeals drew more attention

than the black and white appeal (M

blue

=6.92,M

orange

=7.04,M

white

= 6.48, F(2, 232) = 2.57, p = .079). Familiarity with the

organization had a positive impact on attention as well (F(1, 232) = 4.0, p b .05).

More pertinent to our hypothesis, there was a signiﬁcant interaction between color and appeal type (F(2, 232) = 6.97, p =

.001). Attention was higher for the negative appeal when it appeared against the orange background than the blue (p b .01) or

white background (p b .05) (see Table 4). There was no difference between the blue and white backgrounds (p = 1.0). Attention

was also marginally higher for the positive appeal when it appeared against the blue background than the orange (p =.073)or

the white background (p b .05) (see Table 4).

5.2.5. Moderation mediated by attention

We tested whether the interaction between color as an independent variable and appeal as a moderator on intention to donate

is mediated by attention, an antecedent mediator that is predicted to intensify emotion for both charity appeals. A moderated me-

diation bootstrapping analysis (Hayes, 2013, PROCESS model 8) was performed to examine the relationship, and the results

showed that the 95% bootstrap conﬁdence intervals did not include zero (Lower CI = −1.0189; Upper CI = −0.3078), which

Table 1

Pairwise comparisons for intention to donate (Study 2).

Means p-Value 95% CI for difference

negative-orange

= 5.59 M

negative-blue

= 4.24 ps b .05 095–2.604

negative-white

= 4.23 0.12–2.606

positive-blue

= 6.21 M

positive-orange

= 4.92 0.019–2.55

positive-white

= 4.71 0.233–2.76

4.92

5.59

6.21

4.24

4.71

4.23

Positive Negative

Orange

Blue

White

Fig. 3. Interaction of color and message on intention to donate (study 2).

conﬁrmed that the color × emotional appeal interaction was mediated by attention. Five thousand bootstrap samples were gen-

erated for the analysis.

5.2.6. Process testing for the negative appeal

First, we examined the mediating role of attention and emotion on donation for orange versus blue backgrounds, using white

as a covariate. For this test, two dummy variables were constructed to dummy-code three groups, such that D1 codes blue (white

0, blue 1, and orange 0) and D2 codes white (white 1, blue 0, and orange 0), with orange being the reference group. The mediation

model includes intention to donate as a dependent variable, D1 as an independent variable, D2 and familiarity with the organiza-

tion as covariates, attention as the ﬁrst mediator, and negative emotions as the second mediator. A mediation bootstrapping anal-

ysis (Hayes, 2013, PROCESS model 6) with 5000 bootstrap samples showed that the 95% bootstrap conﬁdence interval did not

include 0 (β = −0.1618, Lower CI = −0.4157; Upper CI = −0.0141), suggesting that the effect of color on intention to donate

was mediated by (1) attention and (2) negative emotions, sequentially as hypothesized.

Next, we replaced D2 as an independent variable and D1 as a covariate to test mediation of attention and emotions on inten-

tion to donate for the orange and white backgrounds. Results conﬁrmed the hypothesized mediation relationship (β = −0.1349,

Lower CI = −0.3386; Upper CI = −0.0100) (see Table 5). Finally, we recoded the dummy variables and tested mediation for the

blue and white conditions (D1 codes blue (white 0, blue 1, and orange 0) and D2 codes orange (white 0, blue 0, and orange 1),

with white as the reference group). Results for this test were not signiﬁcant (β = −0.0270, Lower CI = −0.1907; Upper CI =

0.1022). No mediation effects with positive emotions as the mediator were found for the negative appeal.

5.2.7. Process testing for the positive appeal

The same process was repeated to test the mediating role of attention and emotions for the positive appeal. We used dummy

codes for the independent variable, such that D1 codes white (white 1, blue 0, and orange 0) and D2 codes orange (white 0, blue

0, and orange 1), with blue as the reference group. Five thousand bootstrap samples (Hayes, 2013, PROCESS model 6) showed that

the 95% bootstrap conﬁdence interval did not include 0 (β = −0.1113, Lower CI = −0.2816; Upper CI = −0.0126), suggesting

that the effect of color (orange vs. blue) on intention to donate was sequentially mediated by (1) attention and (2) positive emo-

tions. Me diation for the white and blue conditions was also signiﬁcant ( β = −0.1385, Lower CI = −0.3309; Upper CI =

−0.0217) (see Table 6), but mediation for orange and white was not (β =0.0273,LowerCI=−0.0772; Upper CI = 0.1499).

Taken together, the results of study 2 provide further support for hypotheses 1 and 2.

6. Study 3

This study was developed to garner support for the causal impact of attention on donation behavior by directly manipulating

attention level. We suggest that attention will be heightened when color and appeal type are incongruent, which subsequently

enhances donors' emotional experiences, resulting in greater donations. Based on this reasoning, a direct manipulation of attention

levels should attenuate the interaction of background color and charity appeals, resulting in a main effect of attention level on

donation.

6.1. Participants and method

Eight hundred Mturk workers participated in this study. Six participants did not complete the survey, leaving a ﬁnal sample of

794 (M

age

= 37.6 years, Males = 373, Females 419, 2 unreported gender). We utilized a 2 (attention: low and high) × 2 (color:

orange and blue) × 2 (appeal type: positive and negative) between-subjects design. Participants were told they would see a por-

tion of a charity appeal from Save the Children, which was used in Study 1–1. In the high attention condition, participants were

told that their opinion of the appeal would determine whether the charity would use it or not in an upcoming campaign. In the

low attention condition, participants were told that they were about to see an appeal that had been used by the charity before, but

probably would not be used again. A pretest (N = 70) indicated that our attention manipulation was successful. Participants in the

Table 2

Pairwise comparisons for positive emotions (Study 2).

Means p-Value 95% CI for difference

positive-blue

= 6.07 M

positive-orange

= 4.82 ps b .01 0.387–2.110

positive-white

= 4.84 0.370–2.093

Table 3

Pairwise comparisons for negative emotions (Study 2).

Means p-Value 95% CI for difference

negative-orange

= 6.51 M

negative-blue

= 5.42 ps b .05 0.172–2.011

negative-white

= 5.54 0.061–1.883

high attention condition reported paying more attention to the appeals than those in the low attention condition (M

high

= 4.69,

low

= 2.83, p b .001).

After viewing the charity appeals, participants were asked about their intention to donate to the charity (1 not at all–7very

much so). Participants were also told that they would be automatically entered into a lottery drawing for $10 as an additional

show of appreciation. We asked participants how much they would be willing to donate to the charity if they won the lottery.

Participants were asked to report on the emotions they experienced when viewing the appeal on the same ﬁve positive (α =

0.96) and ﬁve negative (α = 0.89) emotions used in Study 2. Familiarity with the organization was measured on the same

scale as before. After reporting their demographic information, participants were dismissed from the study.

6.2. Results

6.2.1. Donation intention

We conducted a three-way ANCOVA with color (orange and blue), appeal type (positive and negative), and attention level

(high and low) as predictors and familiarity with the charity as a covariate. As expected, the main effect of attention was signif-

icant (F(1, 785) = 10.21, p = .001), such that donation intention in the high attention condition was greater than that in the low

attention condition. There was also a marginal effect of appeal type such that donation intention was greater for the negative ap-

peal than the positive appeal (F(1, 785) = 3.40, p = .065). Familiarity with the organization had a positive effect on donation in-

tention (F(1, 785) = 37.24, p b .001). No other effects were signiﬁcant (ps N .15).

6.2.2. Donation amount

A three-way ANCOVA with donation amount as the DV revealed a main effect of attention, such that donations were greater in

the high (vs. low) attention condition (F(1, 785) = 5.10, p = .024). No other main or interaction effects were found (ps N .10).

6.2.3. Positive emotions

Another 2 × 2 × 2 ANCOVA revealed a main effect of appeal type on positive emotions, where the positive appeal elicited more

positive emotions than the negative one (F(1, 785) = 167.25, p b .001). A signiﬁcant interaction between attention level and ap-

peal type was also found (F(1, 785) = 5.69, p = .017).

Familiarity with the organization enhanced positive emotions (p b .001).

No other main or interaction effect was found (ps N .11).

6.2.4. Negative emotions

The 2 × 2 × 2 ANCOVA revealed a main effect of appeal type, such that people experienced more negative emotions after read-

ing the negative appeal than the positive one (F(1, 785) = 113.71, p b .001). A two-way interaction effect of attention and charity

appeal was marginally signiﬁcant (F(1, 785) = 2.90, p =.09).

The three-way interaction effect was also marginally signiﬁcant (F

We conducted another ANCOVA with appeal type and attention level as predictors and familiarity as a covariate to look into this signiﬁcant 2-way interaction. The

results revealed that participants felt more positive emotions from the positive appeal in the high (vs. low) attention level (M

high

=5.35,M

low

=4.91,F(1, 789) = 3.78,

p = .052), but not from the negative appeal (M

high

=2.91,M

low

=3.21,F(1, 789) = 1.86, p N .17).

We conducted another ANCOVA with appeal type and attention level as predictors and familiarity as a covariate to look into this marginally signiﬁcant 2-way in-

teraction. The results revealed that participants felt more negative emotions from the negative appeal in the high (vs. low) attention level, but this difference was not

signiﬁcant (M

high

=5.12,M

low

=4.81,F(1, 789) = 2.27, p N .13). There was no difference in the positive appeal condition (M

high

=3.28,M

low

=3.47,F(1,

789) = 0.89, p N .34).

Table 5

Conditional indirect effects of color on donation intention (negative appeal) (Study 2).

Color Attention LLCI ULCI Attention → Negative emotion LLCI ULCI Negative emotion LLCI ULCI

Blue vs. Orange −0.5180 −1.0227 −0.1457 −0.1618 −0.4157 −0.0141 −0.1645 −0.5115 0.0342

White vs. Orange −0.4316 −0.8180 −0.1119 −0.1349 −0.3386 −0.0100 −0.1739 −0.5666 0.0455

Blue vs. White −0.0864 −0.5230 0.2888 −0.0270 −0.1907 0.1022 0.0094 −0.2174 0.2691

Note. – LLCI/ULCI indicates lower/upper limit of the 95% conﬁdence interval (CI). Coefﬁcients in bold type indicate signiﬁcant conditional indirect effects (CI does

not include a zero).

Table 4

Pairwise comparisons for attention (Study 2).

Means p-Value 95% CI for difference

negative-orange

= 7.82 M

negative-blue

= 6.70 ps b .01 0.212–2.035

negative-white

= 6.90 p b .05 0.021–1.827

positive-blue

= 7.17 M

positive-orange

= 6.31 p = .073 −0.055–1.783

positive-white

= 6.10 p b .05 0.153–1.991

(1, 785) = 2.90, p = .089), but the two decomposed two-way interactions between colors and charity appeals in terms of atten-

tion level were not signiﬁcant (ps N .18). No other main or interaction effect was found (ps N .67).

6.2.5. Process testing for the positive appeal

A mediation analysis with 10,000 bootstrap samples and positive emotions as the mediator (Hayes, 2013, PROCESS model 4) re-

vealed a signiﬁcant indirect effect of positive emotions on both donation amount (β = 0.2127, 95% Lower CI = 0.0061; Upper

CI = 0.4796) and donation intention (β = 0.1788, 95% Lower CI = 0.0013; Upper CI = 0.3687). High attention intensiﬁed posi-

tive emotional responses, which increased both donation amount and donation intention for the positive appeal. Indirect effects

with negative emotions as a mediator for the positive appeal were not found.

6.2.6. Process testing for the negative appeal

An analysis for the negative appeal revealed non-signiﬁcant mediation effects for donation amount (β = 0.0712, 95% Lower

CI = −0.0122; Upper CI = 0.2182) and donation intention (β = 0.0460, 95% Lower CI = −0.0112; Upper CI = 0.1360). There

were no indirect effects with negative emotions as the mediator for the positive appeal.

6.3. Discussion

The results of this study support our moderated mediation hypothesis for the positive appeal. Surprisingly, we obtained non-

signiﬁcant mediation effects for the negative appeal. We suspect that this is due to the way attention was manipulated in the

study. Prior research distinguishes be tween stimulus-driven attention and goal-driven attent ion (Orquin & Loos e, 2013).

Stimulus-driven attention relates to the characteristics of the stimulus such as location and salience, whereas goal-driven attention

is dependent on the respondents' decision goals (Meißner, Musalem, & Huber, 2016). Importantly, stimulus-driven attention

seems to occur more automatically tha n goal-driven attention. Previously, we measured attention from the incongruence of

color and appeal type, which is likely stimulus-driven. However, the manipulated attention in the current study was more likely

to be goal-driven, as participants had predetermined goals relating to whether they should pay attention to the appeals. Further,

people are more willing to experience higher levels of positive emotions than negative ones. Thus, in the case of goal-driven at-

tention, the effect of emotional stimuli on positive emotions, and the effect of positive emotions on subsequent behaviors should

be stronger than for negative emotions.

The fact that the interaction effect of color and appeal type was attenuated in the high attention condition was expected—peo-

ple in the high attention condition will pay attention to the stimuli regardless of the incongruence effect. However, we also found

an attenuation of the interaction effect of color and appeal type in the low attention condition. We surmise that this is due to par-

ticipants' information processing goals in the low attention condition—the manipulation instructions informed participants that the

appeal they were about to see would not be used by the charity in the future. Therefore, it is likely that people were not motivated

to pay attention to their assigned charity appeal. However, people might be less reluctant to pay attention to the positive appeal

compared to the negative appeal even in the low attention condition, so the stimulus-driven incongruence effect may continue to

inﬂuence behavior for positive appeals. Further exploration of the data showed a focused contrast effect of color on donation in-

tention for the positive appeal in the low attention condition (M

positive+blue

= 4.39, M

positive+orange

= 3.88, F(1, 785) = 4.38,

p b .05), whereas such an effect did not exist for the negative appeal (M

negative+blue

= 4.34, M

negative+orange

= 4.40, F(1,

785) b 1). In a follow-up study (see Appendix D), we used different attention levels – i.e., high attention vs. control – and

were able to replicate the pattern of results pertaining to the interaction of color and appeal type that we obtained in our prior

studies in the control condition (M

positive-blue

= $5.83 vs. M

positive-orange

= $4.88, F(1, 820) = 4.22, p b .05; M

negative-orange

$5.92 vs. M

negative-blue

= $4.99, F(1, 820) = 3.87, p b .05). As expected, the congruency effect was attenuated in the high attention

condition.

In sum, this study shows the effect of attention on donation by directly manipulating attention, and examines the mediating

role of emotional responses. This study provides further support for the mechanism uncovered in Study 2. In the next study,

we examine a potential boundary condition for the effect.

7. Study 4

Prior research shows that when consumers are made aware that their emotion is inﬂuenced by an external source, they are no

longer inﬂuenced by that emotion (Di Muro & Murray, 2012; Kim et al., 2010; Schwarz & Clore, 1983). We test this hypothesis in a

Table 6

Conditional indirect effects of color on donation intention (positive appeal) (Study 2).

Color Attention LLCI ULCI Attention → Positive emotion LLCI ULCI Positive emotion LLCI ULCI

Orange vs. Blue −0.4664 −0.9302 −0.0940 −0.1113 −0.2816 −0.0126 −0.3760 −0.8145 −0.0362

White vs. Blue −0.5808 −1.1732 −0.1565 −0.1385 −0.3309 −0.0217 −0.3427 −0.7989 −0.0221

Orange vs. White 0.0144 −0.2552 0.5828 0.0273 −0.0772 0.1499 −0.0333 −0.3337 0.3049

Note. – LLCI/ULCI indicates lower/upper limit of the 95% conﬁdence interval (CI). Coefﬁcients in bold type indicate signiﬁcant conditional indirect effects (CI does

not include a zero).

donation context in Study 4. We designed a set of stimuli for this study based on ads for Save the Children (see Supplemen-

tary materi al). We conducted a pretest t o ensure that the positi ve and negative charity appeals elicited the intended reac-

tions, and found t hat the positive appeal was rated more positive (p b .05) and happy (p b .001) than the n egative appeal.

The negative appeal was rated more negati ve ( p b .05) and sad (p b .001) than the positive appeal (see Appendix E for

details).

In the main study, we randomly assigned participants to one of eight conditions in a 2 (awareness: color vs. music

(control)) × 2 (color: orange vs. blue) × 2 (charity appeal: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design. We recruited

231 participants (M

age

= 34.1 yea rs; 137 males and 94 females) from MTurk. Participants ﬁrst completed the awareness

induction task, in which they we re made aware of the effect of color on emotion s (manipulation condition) or music on

emotions (control condition). This was done by asking participants to read a recent news article on the relevant topic

(see Supplementary material). After reading the assigned article, participants were asked the extent to which they

agreed with the article (i.e., to what extent do you agree that music (color) affects mood? 1: strongly disagree to 7:

strongly agree). This served as a manipulation check. In both the music and color awareness conditions, the level of

agreement was higher than the median value (M

music

=6.32vs.4.00,t(110) = 6.32, p b .001; M

color

= 5.73 vs. 4.00,

t(119) = 5.73, p b .001), suggesting the manipulation successfully raised perceptio ns that ext ernal cu es can aff ect

emotions.

After ﬁnishing the ﬁrst phase of the task, participants were told that they would be completing a separate, unrelated study.

They were then randomly assigned to view a charity appeal (positive, negative) against a colored background (orange, blue).

We used the same color model as our other studies (Blue - Hue: 170, Saturation: 239, Luminance: 128; Orange - Hue: 15, Satu-

ration: 239, Luminance: 128). After answering ﬁller questions about the appeal, participants were thanked for their participation

and told that they would be automatically entered into a lottery for $10 as an extra show of appreciation. We asked how much

they would donate to Save the Children if they won the lottery. Participants could respond with any number, from $0 to $10.

This served as our main variable of interest. After reporting familiarity with the organization and demographic information,

they were dismissed.

7.1. Results

A 2 × 2 × 2 ANCOVA with aw areness c ondition, col or, and appeal type as predictors and familiarity with the organi-

zation as a covariate revealed a signiﬁcant two-way interactio n between color and appeal (F(1, 222) = 4.45, p b .05) and

a three-way interaction (F(1, 222) = 5.03, p b .05). In the control (music awareness) co ndition, replic ating previ ous re-

sults, the interaction of color and appeal type was signiﬁcant (F(1, 222) = 9.18, p b .01). Pairwise comparisons showed

that t he positive-blue appeal was more effective than the positive-orange one (M

positive-blue

= $5.17 vs. M

positive-orange

$3.39, F(1, 222) = 4.83, p b .05), and the negative-orange appeal was more effective than the negative-blue one

negative-orange

= $5.24 vs. M

negative-blue

= $3.25, F(1, 222) = 4.44, p b .05). Howev er, the i nteract ion effec t disappe ared

in the color aware ness con diti on ( F (1,222) b 1). That is, when parti cipants wer e made aware that their emotions could be

inﬂuenced by co lor, neither positive nor negative charity appeal effectiveness differed by background color (M

positive-blue

=$3.75

vs. M

positive-orange

= $4.76, F(1, 222) = 1.22, p N .27; M

negative-orange

= $4.01 vs. M

negative-blue

= $3.12, F(1, 222) = 1.28, p N .26)

(see Figs. 4 and 5). The results comport with previous research showing that emotion-induced biases are erased once people are

aware that their emotions may be inﬂuenced by relevant external cues. This study provides further support for our proposed mech-

anism of and aligns with Hypothesis 3.

$3.39

$5.24

$5.17

$3.25

$0.00

$1.00

$2.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

$6.00

Positive Negative

Study 4 results (Music-mood

awareness control condition)

Orange

Blue

$4.76

$4.01

$3.75

$3.12

$0.00

$1.00

$2.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

Positive Negative

Study 4 results (Color-mood

awareness experimental condition)

Orange

Blue

Figs. 4 and 5. Interaction of awareness of color impact, color, and message on donation behavior (study 4).

8. General discussion

There are over 1.5 million nonproﬁt organizations in the United States (National Center for Charitable Statistics, 2017)that

compete with one another to raise funds for their causes. As the demand for the help that these organizations provide increases,

nonproﬁtmarketersneedtoﬁnd novel ways to sustain their fundraising efforts and enhance the effectiveness of their donation

appeals . The current research builds upon extant work on donation behavior, color psychology and incongruence effects to

show that the strategic use of certain background colors with both positively- and negatively-valenced charity appeals will attract

the attention of potential donors and bolster their donation behavior by intensifying their emotional response to the appeals. In

doing so, we highlight the critical role played by incongruent contextual cues in inﬂuencing prosocial behavior.

Prior research ﬁnds that both positive- and negative-valenced charity appeals can stimulate donation behavior. However, there

is little research on the impact of background color on the effectiveness of charity appeals, which is rather surprising given the

importance of visual cues in today's image-laden media environment. In view of the fact that people pay more attention to infor-

mation that is incongruent (vs. congruent) with an elicited schema (Moore et al., 2005), we hypothesized and showed that charity

appeals presented against an incongruent background color elicit more attention. Increased attention to the charity appeal mag-

niﬁes the emotional intensity experienced by potential donors, which ultimately inﬂuences their donations.

In addition to delineating the process by which congruency impacts donation behavior, we also explored a boundary condition

for the focal effect. We posited that if potential donors are informed about the source of their felt emotions (e.g., Di Muro &

Murray, 2012) in response to the visual stimuli, then the effect of emotions on donation behavior will be attenuated. We ﬁnd

this to be true—the effect of incongruent background color on the effectiveness of charity appeals is diminished if people are

made aware of the association between color and emotions.

The current research makes several contributions to extant literature. Prior research in advertising (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio,

1995) suggests that the use of colors can, at times, be detrimental to the evaluation of the advertised product, depending on the

availability of cognitive resources. Lee et al. (2014) suggest that using colors in ads can potentially distract consumers from paying

attention to the primary product claims in the ad by evoking low-level construal. This research ﬁnds that the use of select back-

ground colors with emotional charity appeals can enhance the attention people pay to the message and increase the effectiveness

of the appeal in stimulating donation behavior. Our results are consistent with other studies showing that both positive and neg-

ative emotions can increase prosocial behavior (Cialdini et al., 1982; Cunningham et al., 1980; Weyant, 1978), and contribute to

the broader charitable giving literature.

The results of this research provide nonproﬁt organizations with guidance on when and why emotional charity appeals evoke

different levels of attention, emotional responses and donation behavior. Charities might use different types of emotional appeals

depending on the cause that they support. For example, a positive appeal would be a better ﬁt for a community soccer team's

fundraising effort. On the other hand, a negative appeal might be more appropriate when requesting provisions for children living

in a war zone. Our research suggests that the former type of appeal might be more effective against a blue background, while the

latter type will garner more support if presented against an orange background.

8.1. Limitations and future directions

The current research is not without limitations. In the ﬁeld study (1–2), we found that people donated signiﬁcantly more

money when they read a negative appeal against an orange (vs. blue) background. However, donations for the positive appeal

against the blue and orange backgrounds did not differ. We suspect that the non-signiﬁcant results were due to the nature of

the image in the charity letter. The results of our posttest suggest the victim in the positive appeal was not perceived as being

particularly needy, and perceived neediness might be an important predictor of donation behavior. In addition, given the nature

of email campaigns, we had no means to detect whether people had actually opened the email to read the message or had simply

clicked “mark as read.” Thus, it was difﬁcult to determine the correct sample size to measure behavior. We set the sample size to

those who had actually interacted with the appeals by clicking on the donation button. However, we acknowledge that tracking

the outcome of each email more rigorously (e.g., with email tracking software) would be ideal.

Another limitation of this research is that we focused solely on the valence of the elicited emotions (e.g., pleasantness-sadness)

and did not test whether other factors such as cognitive appraisal and information processing were affected. To help address this

issue, we conducted posttests for all stimuli in the paper and report the details in Supplementary material. We measured eight

cog

nitive appraisal dimensions (e.g., pleasantness, legitimacy, control, certainty), using the same items as Smith and Ellsworth

(1985). While all the emotional appeals affected pleasantness, their effects on other appraisals were largely not signiﬁcant. We

also measured information processing using Kimchi and Palmer's (1982) ﬁgure stimuli, and the results showed no signiﬁcant dif-

ference in global versus local processing in any of our studies. Although previous studies support the relationship between mood

and information processing (Gasper & Clore, 2002), the evoked emotions from viewing our emotional charity appeals might not be

strong enough to activate different types of information processing.

We acknowledge that there is a potential confound from the different number of beneﬁciaries in the positive and negative ap-

peals in several of our studies (i.e., Study 1–1, Study 3, and Study 4). Nevertheless, we found consistent effects when using appeals

with the same number of victims in the ﬁeld study and in Study 2, which boosts our conﬁdence that the effects were not driven

by the number of beneﬁciaries in the manipulations.

Another limitation of this research is that it was conducted in one culture. Elliot et al. (2007) suggest that colors can have dif-

ferent consequences for cognition and behavior based on the context. People from different cultures automatically associate colors

with different concepts through a lifetime of learning and reinforcement. For instance, people in the United States have an auto-

matic preference for the color white over black (Kareklas, Brunel, & Coulter, 2013), which has important implications for product

sales (e.g., car paint colors) and ad execution (e.g., racial ethnicity in advertising messages). However, the color white signiﬁes

death in Japan and sterility in Eastern cultures (Akcay, Dalgin, & Bhatnagar, 2011). Future research should identify background

colors that are incongruent with positive and negative emotional charity appeals in other cultures, so that non-proﬁt marketers

from across the globe can beneﬁt from this information.

To examine the effect of background colors in a clear and systematic manner, we selectively used orange and blue in our ads.

We tried to replicate the effects with yellow and purple, the colors closest to orange and blue on the color wheel, but were largely

unsuccessful. We speculate that the level of incongruence from these two background colors with the charity appeals might not be

strong enough to draw participants' attention to the stimuli. In fact, we tested the level of incongruence between positive and neg-

ative appeals and the color yellow (Hue: 40, Saturation: 239, Luminance: 128) and purple (Hue: 188, Saturation: 239, Luminance:

128). We were not able to ﬁnd an interaction between color and charity appeal on perceived incongruence (F(1, 117) = 0.37,

p N .54). The wavelength of yellow is shorter than orange, which may be why it is not perceived to be as warm as orange. Purple

might not be as strongly associated with sadness as blue. It would be prudent for future research to examine whether our effects

generalize to other colors that are associated with positive and negative emotions.

Further, it should be noted that our experiments controlled for both saturation and luminance and varied only the hue. How-

ever, saturation and luminance can also inﬂuence emotions (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi, & Dahl, 1997; Hagtvedt & Brasel, 2017;

Valdez & Mehrabian, 1994). Future studies should investigate the role of saturation and luminance on the effectiveness of charity

appeals. Relatedly, it would be fruitful for future research to explore other emotional effects of color besides valence. For example,

studies suggest that, in some situations, blue produces feelings of relaxation while red increases feelings of excitement or aggres-

sion (e.g., Labrecque & Milne, 2012). Such research speaks to the arousal dimension of emotion (e.g., Watson & Tellegen, 1985),

and can inﬂuence the evaluations of ads (Gorn, Pham, & Sin, 2001).

Importantly, the effect of color may vary depending on the context. The color-in-context model suggests that the inﬂuence of

color on behavior varies as a function of the psychological context in which it is perceived. For instance, red increases approach

tendencies in a romantic context and avoidance tendencies in an achievement related context (Meier, D'Agostino, Elliot, Maier,

& Wilkowski, 2012). Knowing the circumstances in which the same color can produce different effects will undoubtedly be valu-

able to some organizations.

Drawing on the current work, one area that is ripe for research in the charitable giving context is the exploration of how dif-

ferent aspects of a charity appeal interact with one another to inﬂuence prosocial behavior. For instance, Grinstein et al. (2019)

demonstrate that simultaneously including two visual cues (i.e., one modality) – an aesthetically pleasing image of an individual

and a displeasing image of a group – enhances the empathy felt by the reader and promotes prosocial behavior. How then, would

the inclusion of cues belonging to different modalities (audio, visual, olfactory, etc.) in an emotional charity appeal inﬂuence

prosocial behavior? Televised charity appeals often have sad music accompanying requests for support. Would an incongruous

background music-emotional appeal combination produce the same contextual effects observed in our research?

9. Conclusion

Emotional appeals are often the most effective way to reach potential donors, and both positive and negative affect can in-

crease helping behavior. Drawing on color psychology and schema incongruity, the current research proposes a way to intensify

the feelings induced by emotional charity ads, thus increasing their effectiveness. Combining a color that elicits negative valence

with a positive charity appeal, or a color that elicits positive valence with a negative charity appeal, results in an increase in atten-

tion and subsequent enhancement of positive and negative affect, respectively. These incongruent color-appeal combinations lead

to greater donations and donation intentions, but the effects are erased when consumers are aware of the cause of their emotions.

Taken together, these ﬁndings suggest that changes to a charity advertisement's background color can lead to shifts in donors' at-

tention, feelings and generosity.

Appendix A. Pretest for Study 1–1

A pretest was conducted to ensure that the positive and negative ads were perceived to be positive and negative, respectively.

One hundred and thirty-three students (M

age

= 20.75 years (one participant did not answer), 72 males and 61 females) from a

large Midwest university were recruited and randomly assigned to view one of the two advertisements on a white background.

After viewing them at their own pace, participants answered several questions about the ad. Participants were asked to respond

on a 7-point scale (1 = completely disagree to 7 = completely agree) the extent to which they agreed with the following state-

ments: “This was a positive ad,”“This was a negative ad,”“This was a happy ad,”“This was a sad ad.” Next, participants were

asked how memorable and interesting the ad was (1 = not at all, 5 = extremely) in order to address these potential confounds.

The results of this study showed that the positive ad was indeed rated more positive (M

positive ad

=4.94vs.M

negative ad

=2.88;F

(1, 132) = 74.80, p b .001) and happy (M

positive ad

=3.92vs.M

negative ad

= 2.15; F(1, 131) = 74.93, p b .001) than the negative

ad. The negative ad was rated more negative (M

negative ad

=4.58vs.M

positive ad

= 2.91; F(1, 131) = 53.06, p b .001) and sad

negative ad

= 5.69 vs. M

positive ad

= 4.15; F(1, 131) = 55.51, p b .001) than the positive ad. There were no signiﬁcant differences

on ratings of how memorable and interesting the ads were (ps N .10).

Appendix B. Pretest for Study 1–2

We conducted a pretest to make sure the positive (negative) appeal is perceived as more positive (negative) than the negative

(positive) appeal. Eighty-two Mturk participants (M

age

= 35.3 years, 41 males and 41 females) were recruited and randomly

assigned to view either the positive ad or the negative ad on a white background. Using the same pretest measures as in study

1–1, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with the following statements: “This was a positive ad,”

“This was a negative ad,”“This was a happy ad,”“This was a sad ad.” Afterwards, participants were asked to rate how memorable

and interesting the charity appeal was. As expected, the positive ad was rated more positive (M

positive ad

=5.90vs.M

negative ad

3.44; F(1, 80) = 57.29, p b .001) and happy (M

positive ad

=5.39vs.M

negative ad

= 2.32; F(1, 80) = 150.91, p b .001) than the neg-

ativead.Similarly,thenegativeadwasperceivedasmorenegative(M

negative ad

=4.51vs.M

positive ad

=1.85;F(1, 80) = 144.89,

p b .001) and sad (M

negative ad

=5.78vs.M

positive ad

= 2.74; F(1, 80) = 81.49, p b .001) than the positive ad. No difference was

observed on ratings of how memorable and interesting the ads were (ps N .25).

Appendix C. Pretest for Study 2

We recruited forty-two participants (M

age

= 33.2 years, 27 males and 15 females) online and randomly assigned them to view

one of the two appeals on a white background. We used the same scales from the Study 1–1 pretest to measure perceptions of

how positive, negative, happy, and sad the appeal was. We also measured how memorable and interesting the appeal was to

make sure these potential confounds were controlled for. The results of an ANOVA with charity appeal (positive, negative) as a

predictor showed that the positive appeal was rated more positive (M

positive ad

=6.24vs.M

negative ad

=2.67;F(1, 40) = 76.01,

p b .001) and happy (M

positive ad

=5.43vs.M

negative ad

= 1.24; F(1, 40) = 238.28, p b .001) than the negative appeal. The negative

appeal was rated more negative (M

negative ad

=5.29vs.M

positive ad

=1.76;F(1, 40) = 89.77, p b .001) and sad (M

negative ad

= 6.71

vs. M

positive ad

= 2.86; F(1, 40) = 139.30, p b .001) than the positive appeal. No differences were found on ratings of how mem-

orable and interesting the ads were (ps N .10).

Appendix D. Follow-up study for Study 3

The purpose of the study was to test a boundary condition for the focal interaction effect of color and appeal type on donation

behavior. We manipulated donors' attention level, and hypothesized that the interaction effect will exist only when goals are not

pre-determined.

D.1. Participants and method

We were presented with an opportunity to collect data from close to 300 students at a large university in the Midwest. How-

ever, due to the study design and recent calls for increasing power in experimental research (Meyvis & Van Osselaer, 2018), we

decided to supplement these data with additional online participants (Jones & Neria, 2015; Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis,

2010). Five hundred and thirty-one Mturk workers and two hundred and ninety-eight students from a large Midwest university

participated in the study (M

age

= 30.8 years, Males = 450, Females 379). We utilized a 2 (attention: control and high) × 2 (color:

orange and blue) × 2 (appeal type: positive and negative) between-subjects design. Participants were randomly assigned to see

one of the charity appeals from Save the Children. The texts of the appeals were the same as the texts used in Study 1–1 and

Study 3, but had slightly different victim images (see Supplementary material).

We used the same manipulation for the high attention condition as in Study 3, such that participants were told that their opin-

ion about the appeal would determine whether the charity would use it or not in an upcoming campaign. In the control condition,

consistent with the studies in this paper that did not manipulate attention, participants were simply told that they were about to

see a charity appeal. We used the same procedure from previous studies to measure donation behavior by asking participants how

much they would be willing to donate if they won the $10 lottery. Familiarity with the organization was measured on the same

scale as before. Participants were dismissed after reporting their demographic information.

D.2. Results

A three-way ANCOVA with color (orange and blue), appeal type (positive and negative), and attention level (high and con-

trol) as predictors and familiarity wi th the charity a s a covariate revealed a sign iﬁcant two-wa y interaction between color and

appeal (F(1, 820) = 4.21, p b .05) and a signiﬁcant three-way interaction effect (F(1, 820) = 3.88, p b .05). Familiarity with the

organization also had a mar ginal positive impact on donation (F(1, 820) = 3.50, p = .062). No other effects were signiﬁcant

(ps N .12). In the control condition, the 2-way interaction of color and appeal type was signiﬁcant (F(1, 820) = 8.08, p b .01) .

Pairwise comparisons showed th at the positive-blue appeal was more ef fec tive than the positive-orange one (M

positive-blue

$5.83 vs. M

positive-orange

=$4.88,F(1, 820) = 4.22, p b .05), and the negative-orange appeal was more effective than the

negative-blue one (M

negative-o range

= $5.92 vs. M

negative-blue

= $4.99, F(1, 820) = 3.87, p b .05). However, the interaction effect

disappeared in the high attention condition (F(1,820) b 1). When participan ts paid greater attention to the charity appeal, nei-

ther positive nor negative charity appeal effectiveness differed by background color (M

positive-blue

= $5.40 vs. M

positive-orange

$5.20, F (1, 840) b 1; M

negative-orange

= $5.83 vs. M

negative-blue

= $6.00, F(1, 820) b 1). The results co nﬁrmed that donation

behavior was less inﬂuenced by t he inco ngruence of color and a ppeal type when they were already motivated to pay attention to

the charity appeal, whereas the incongruence effect exis ted when goals we re not pre-determined.

Appendix E. Pretest for Study 4

Forty-eight participants (26 males and 22 females, M

age

= 39.0 years) were recruited online and randomly assigned to look at

one of the newly designed charity appeals on a white background. As in the previous pretests, participants were asked how pos-

itive, negative, happy, sad, memorable, and interesting the ad is. The results of ANOVA showed that the positive appeal was rated

more positive (M

positive ad

=5.54vs.M

negative ad

= 4.58; F(1, 46) = 5.91, p b .05) and happy (M

positive ad

=4.71vs.M

negative ad

2.79; F(1, 46) = 21.36, p b .001) than the negative appeal. The negative appeal was rated more negative (M

negative ad

=3.71vs.

positive ad

=2.63;F(1, 46) = 5.67, p b .05) and sad (M

negative ad

=5.17vs.M

positive ad

= 3.67; F(1, 46) = 17.58, p b .001) than

the positive appeal. The results showed no differences on ratings of how memorable and interesting the ad was (ps N .10).

Appendix F. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.02.001.

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