Examining the Effects of Photographic Attributes on Sympathy, Emotions, and Donation Behavior

Abstract

We tested assumptions about emotional and behavioral effects of persuasive photography, exploring to what extent photographic attributes regarding expression, gaze, and the number of subjects in images influence sympathy. In addition, we examined whether sympathetic responses were associated with impure altruism, moral disengagement, and willingness to donate money to charitable organizations. We found that sympathetic responses were associated with sad imagery, moral disengagement (negative), feelings of altruism, and willingness to donate. We also found the emotions evoked by exposure to the sad expression of the child converged with negative affect after viewing the photos. However, participants who were exposed to the happy visage did not appear to generate significantly greater feelings of happiness when compared with feelings of sadness.

Additional information

Funding

Support for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation under grants SES 0649509 and SES 1024808.

Notes on contributors

Marta Baberini

With first-hand experience using sustainable business practices to generate significant increases in revenue, Marta Barberini is a business savvy and socially responsible international marketer with experience working in a variety of industry sectors. Barberini's specialties are marketing, communications, stakeholder engagement, fundraising, branding, and positioning. She is currently working in London, England, for the Royal Collection Trust as a sales and marketing officer.

E-mail: [email protected]

Cynthia-Lou Coleman

Cynthia-Lou Coleman writes and lectures about how scientific information is deployed in mass media and public discourse and avidly pursues topics that affect indigenous peoples in North America. She specializes in science, risk, health, and environmental communication at Portland State University, in Oregon, where she is a professor. E-mail: [email protected]

Paul Slovic

Paul Slovic is president of Decision Research and a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. He studies human judgment, decision making, and risk perception and has published extensively on these topics. His most recent work examines “psychic numbing” and the failure to respond to mass human tragedies. In 1993 Slovic received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, and in 1995 he received the Outstanding Contribution to Science Award from the Oregon Academy of Science. E-mail: [email protected]

Daniel Västfjäll

Daniel Västfjäll is a Research Scientist at Decision Research and Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Linköping University in Sweden. His research focuses on the role of affect, and especially mood, in judgment and decision making, perception, and psychophysics. A common theme in his research is how affective feelings serve as information for various judgments, including judgments about consumer products, health, and the self, and auditory characteristics of objects.

E-mail: [email protected]