Humor Heals: Examining Meme Tone and Victim Framing in Donation‐Driven Content

ABSTRACT This research examines how emotional tone (serious vs. humorous) and victim framing (single vs. group) in meme‐style social media posts shape consumers' donation intentions. Drawing on compassion fade, emotion regulation, and anticipated affect frameworks, three experiments test whether humor can buffer against the compassion fade effect and clarify the psychological processes underlying this phenomenon. Study 1 (Stage 1: Factorial test) demonstrates that humor sustains donation intentions in group‐victim appeals. Study 1 (Stage 2: Measurement model and structural equation modeling), using structural equation modeling, shows that compassion influences donation intentions through empathetic concern, perceived impact, and anticipated affect, and that these pathways are strengthened under humorous appeals. Study 2 replicates the humor × victim interaction in a new domain (shelter aid), confirming the robustness of the effect across cause categories. Study 3 extends the model by identifying cognitive load and identifiability as parallel mediators, offering process‐level evidence for why humor mitigates compassion fade. The research contributes to theory by integrating compassion fade and humor processing, and to practice by providing nonprofit organizations with strategic guidance for designing engaging and emotionally resonant digital fundraising campaigns.