Differences in Perspective and the Influence of Charitable Appeals: When Imagining Oneself as the Victim Is Not Beneficial

Advertisements often stimulate consumers to imagine themselves in a situation in which they would personally benefit from using the product being advertised. However, when an advertisement is intended to induce consumers to benefit someone else (e.g., to donate money for relief of disaster victims), stimulating them to imagine themselves in the situation confronting the beneficiary can sometimes conflict with the image they form of themselves as a potential helper. This conflict in imagined perspective can decrease the advertisement's effectiveness. Five studies confirm this hypothesis. When participants took the perspective of the beneficiary at the time they read an appeal for help, characteristics of the appeal that increased the ease with which they could imagine the situation from this perspective (e.g., a picture of the victim) had a positive effect on both their urge to help and the amount of money they donated. However, when they had an a priori disposition to take the perspective of a potential donor at the time they read the appeal, these same characteristics decreased the appeal's effectiveness.