The effects of temperature cues on charitable donation

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how the perception of physical coldness (vs warmth) influences consumers to make charitable donations. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted involving charitable donation scenarios. Findings Studies demonstrate that cold (vs warm) temperature cues result in greater intentions to donate to charities. Specifically, cold (vs warmth) cues activate the need for social connection which, in turn, motivate consumers to donate more money to charities. Furthermore, this effect holds even when the actual temperature instead of temperature cues is changed, and participants’ actual donation behavior instead of donation intentions is measured, thereby, strengthening the findings of this paper. Research limitations/implications Boundary conditions associated with the effect of temperature cues need empirical investigation. Future research needs to investigate if the effect holds with variability of coldness. Future research also needs to determine whether the documented effect occur across various pro-social contexts. Practical implications The results suggest that non-profit organizations incorporate “cold” cues into advertisements (people feeling cold or cold landscapes) to increase monetary donations and that these organizations should focus on targeting donors during wintertime (vs summer time) to get more donations. Originality/value This is the first research to demonstrate the effects of temperature cues on charitable donations. The added value of this paper is the use of physical temperature change to highlight the phenomenon, and the link between cold (vs warm) temperature cue and the need of social connection.

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“…Based on the insights from the effect of physical warmth on social perception in grounded cognition theory, our study extends the current knowledge to retail contexts by providing warmth experience through a store atmosphere. With the use of design elements such as interior color and materials that are known to provide warmth perception (e.g., Fenko et al, ), we found the visually warm (vs. cold) store atmosphere was also associated to warm (vs. cold) temperature consistent with the finding by Rai et al (). We further investigated the effect of visually warm (vs. cold) store atmosphere on consumers' perception based on the metaphoric link between warmth experience and perceptions.…”

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“…Therefore, for example, when people view an image of a fireplace, their brains simulate certain states across the modalities that were stored in memory (e.g., hot feeling, the action of warming their bodies, and introspections of comfort and relaxation). Grounded cognition explains that such stored associations can be activated even without the bodily experience of warmth; the imagination of experiencing warmth (Macrae et al, ) or the mere exposure to the concept of temperature via pictures or sentences (Rai, Lin, & Yang, ) was effective, leading to compatible psychological and behavioral responses.…”

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