Mitigating Effort Through Power: The Impact of Participant Power in Nonprofit Participatory Campaign Engagement

Abstract

This study empirically demonstrates the effect of participant power within the framework of nonprofit campaigns, specifically examining its moderating role in mitigating the perceived effort required for participation. Two studies used a 2 (participation effort: high/low) × 2 (participant power: high/low) between-subjects experimental design. Results indicate that when participant power was low, intentions to engage in nonprofit campaigns were lower among participants facing high participation effort compared with those facing low effort. Conversely, when participant power was high, no significant differences were observed based on the level of participation effort. This research sheds light on the nuanced dynamics of participant involvement in nonprofit campaigns, emphasizing the pivotal role of perceived power in influencing participation behaviors.