Impact of Message Construal, Temporal Distance, and Construal Level on Potential Philanthropic Supporters' Intentions to Donate

Abstract

While individuals' construal level has been extensively investigated in the field of traditional psychology literature, theoretical concerns of the impacts of construal level on philanthropic supporters' intentions to donate is promising but underdeveloped. This paper extends the limited attention given to charitable organizations. Specifically, this research further focuses on whether message construal and temporal distance have moderating effects on the impact of philanthropic supporters' construal level on their intention to donate. Results show that for low-level and high-level construal individuals, charitable appeals characterized by message construal (time vs. money) and temporal distance (proximal vs. distant) will elicit differential intentions to donate. Findings of this research have practical implications for charitable organizations.