Magdalena Mayr

The Impact of Numeracy on Gain and Non-loss Donation Decisions: the Underlying Mechanisms of Donation Decisions Magdalena Mayr

Individuals are often confronted with donation appeals and many factors influence their donation behaviour. This study investigates the influence of numeracy and different presentation formats of the donation appeals as well as the underlying mechanisms on the donation behaviour. Participants (N = 183) were given information about the people in need and how they could help them, either in a gain frame format or in a non-loss frame format. Their willingness to donate, their donations amount and their affective reactions were measured. The results demonstrated that the empathy of individuals with lower numeracy was suggestible to changes in presentation format (i.e. rises in the non-loss frame format), whereas high numerate individuals were not influenced. It was also shown that if a donation appeal was presented in a non-loss frame format the donation amount rose more, the lower the numeracy of the individuals is. These results provide a further insight on the influencing factors of donation behaviour. In many cases, framing a donation appeal in a non-loss way might lead to higher donation amounts, but this does not apply for every individual case.