Wounding pride and infusing affect: the ambivalent emotional experience of checkout charity

Purpose This study aims to apply the Wounded Pride/Spite model (integral emotions which occur during the donation request) and the Affect Infusion model (incidental emotions primed before encountering the checkout charity request) to check out charity to understand the interactive effects of positive and negative emotional responses. Furthermore, the moderating role of a positive or negative shopping experience is examined. Design/methodology/approach In Study 1, 518 customers participated in an online survey using a controlled scenario describing checkout charity exchanges. In Study 2, 274 students participated in a similar online scenario but were primed with a positive or negative shopping experience. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling using Mplus v8. Findings Checkout charity is laden with affective experiences that simultaneously produce positive and negative emotions. Customers who are involved with charities and perceive it acceptable for companies to elicit charitable support are more likely to experience feelings of pride and joy during a point-of-sale donation request. However, negative affective responses are more complicated, as personal support of nonprofits was not enough to reduce feelings of guilt and anger during a donation request. Furthermore, in Study 2, the authors discover that as integral emotions influence customers’ affective states during a checkout charity encounter, incidental emotions garnered from the customer’s shopping experience serve as a moderating role in increasing positive affect and mitigating negative affect, highlighting the importance of the holistic shopping experience. Finally, in Study 2, the incongruent reaction of high positive and high negative affect was linked to decreased donation intentions, further emphasizing the importance of creating positive shopping experiences and identifying customers who perceive it to be acceptable for companies to elicit charitable support. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to apply these dual theoretical explanations to checkout charity, contributing an affective and customer-based understanding to complement prior work on marketing strategy. The findings both uphold and extend research in this area, providing novel support for the role of the customer in determining the success of checkout charity.