When will people with low moral identity importance support a charitable cause?

Purpose This research aims to identify how resistant individuals can be persuaded to support a charitable cause. Prosocial acts, like supporting a charitable cause, are an important part of human behavior and yet it is not fully understood how to encourage particularly resistant individuals, like those with low moral identity importance (MII), to support a worthy cause. Design/methodology/approach Two between-participants experiments examined how those with low MII’s willingness to support a fundraiser is affected by the relative impact they perceive their contribution to have. Findings Those with low MII are persuaded to support a fundraiser when they believe their contribution will have an impact. Study 1 finds that inducing those with low MII with a high (vs low) self-focus increases their perceptions of their donation’s efficacy, which increases their likelihood of spreading the word about the fundraiser. Study 2 then demonstrates that those with low MII are more likely to spread the word about the fundraiser and to donate when others are donating a low (vs high) amount, and this is mediated by their perceptions of relatively high (vs low) donation efficacy. Originality/value Prior research has primarily focused on those with high MII. This research contributes to the literature by focusing on donation impact as a strategy to persuade particularly resistant individuals (i.e. those with low MII) to engage in charitable behaviors.