Suchergebnisse

Identifying low-cost, effective methods to influence behavior is of keen interest to social marketers and others striving to bring about social change. Research on material primes (an object or a word present in the individual's environment) has received little interest from scientists. This field study conducted in France examined whether the presence of a religious symbol could influence the number of individuals who accepted an organ donation card. The study, conducted with 200 males and 200 females, examined the effect of the presence versus the absence of a Christian cross worn by a solicitor on participant's compliance to an organ donation request. The findings showed that participants exposed to a Christian cross worn by a solicitor complied more favorably with the request addressed by the solicitor. This effect was found among both male and female participants. The presence of the Christian cross could have acted as a prime that led in turn to the activation of further concepts associated with religion such as compassion, support or solidarity, which in turn led participants to accept the organ donation solicitation more favorably.

Research has shown that the statement "Even a penny will help" associated with charity fund-raising increases compliance. The present experiment analyzed the effectiveness of this technique using a novel solicitation and an intermediate delay between the statement and the actual execution of the request. Confederates solicited customers in a store for a food donation organized by food humanitarian organization. They wore a T-shirt on which the statement "Even a single package of pastas will help. . ." was either present or not. Results show that more people gave food products when this statement appeared on the T-shirt.

In a field setting, participants (N = 227) were primed with 1 of 3 concepts: love (positive valence), distress (negative valence), or solidarity (positive valence). Participants were then asked to give money to help hospitalized children. Results indicated that the inducing of
love triggered more helpfulness than the inducing of solidarity or of distress. This finding is explained in light of the emotion schemas theory (Izard, 2007), the gender role theory of helping (Eagly & Crowley, 2006), and affective influences on information-processing strategies (Berkowitz,
2000).

Some studies have shown that figurative cues, presented in the immediate environment of an individual, can affect his or her later behavior. This effect was applied in a fundraising context. In 12 bakeries, a pink opaque donation box was placed near the cash register with a message soliciting donations for a humanitarian project. The moneybox had a cardioids (heart-like) shape, a round shape, or a square shape. Results showed that more donations were found with the moneybox with the cardioids shape. The spreading activation theory is used to explain these results.

In the experiment we conducted, participants were separated into guilt or not guilt conditions, with guilt induced by causing participants to feel that they were responsible for something wrong that occurred to a confederate. A few minutes later, the participants viewed a video where
a young female touched and rubbed her face several times. A measure of feeling of guilt was administered in both experimental conditions. Participants in the guilt condition mimicked the target person more than those in the no-guilt condition. The level of mimicry appeared to be linked with
the level of guilt felt, but only in the guilt condition. Results support the notion that mimicry helps to create affiliation and rapport because the desire to build such a relationship is higher in the guilt condition.

In a field experiment, a total of 161 male and 175 female passersby were asked to remember a love episode or, in the control condition, the memory of a piece of music. They then encountered another confederate who asked for directions. Results showed that participants previously induced
with the idea of love spent more time giving directions than did participants in the control group, and that men who retrieved the memory of a love episode were more helpful to female than to male confederates. Results are discussed in light of the gender-role theory of helping (Eagly &
Crowley, 1986).

We conducted 2 experiments (N = 180 participants in Study 1 and N = 102 in Study 2) to examine the effect of imitation shown by a mediator towards negotiators who were on opposing sides in regard to a financial decision being made by a fictitious company. Contrary to what
was expected, data in the first study showed that, when the mediator imitated the negotiator during the first 5 minutes of an interview, this was insufficient to predispose negotiators to be more likely to reach an agreement with one another. The results in the second study showed that imitation
conducted over a longer time and repeated more often during negotiations predisposed opposing parties to be more likely to agree with one another. Applications and limitations of these studies are discussed.