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- 1. Motivations to Support Charity-Linked Events After Exposure to Facebook Appeals: Emotional Cause Identification and Distinct Self-Determined Regulations Kaspar Schattke Université du Québec à Montréal Ronald Ferguson and Michèle Paulin Concordia University Nonprofit organizations are increasingly dependent on the involvement of Millennial constituencies. Three studies investigated their motivations to support charity-linked events: emotional identification with a cause, self-determination theory (SDT) regula- tions, and context-related Facebook promotions. This article addresses the recent call to expand SDT research from a simple analysis of autonomous versus controlled moti- vation, to studying the effects of all the regulations in the SDT continuum, in particular, the inclusion of the tripartite dimensions of intrinsic motivation and integrated moti- vation. Results demonstrated that the greater the emotional identification with the cause, the stronger was the tendency to support the charity- linked event. Also, the results in these social media contexts revealed that specific intrinsic dimensions (e.g.,
- 2. experience stimulation) are motivators of online and offline support, as is the personal value nature of integrated regulation. Whereas only autonomous motivational regula- tions predicted support for the two events organized specifically a for charitable causes, both autonomous and controlled regulations predicted support of a for-profit event organized with a charitable cause as an adjunct. These findings can assist practitioners in designing more effective social media communications in support of charity-linked events. Keywords: social media, self-determination theory, integrated regulation, tripartite model of intrinsic motivation, charitable causes Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000085.supp Social media is a new domain offering excit- ing opportunities to investigate research ques- tions in social psychology (Greitemeyer, 2011; Kende, Ujhelyi, Joinson, & Greitemeyer, 2015). Our research examined motivation to support charity-linked events of nonprofit organizations that are currently faced with increased compe- tition for resources and declining government support (Paulin, Ferguson, Jost, & Fallu, 2014; Reed, Aquino, & Levy, 2007; White & Peloza, 2009). Presently, they depend on an ageing set of traditional supporters (Urbain, Gonzalez, & Le Gall-Ely, 2013). However, their future suc- cess lies in ensuring the sustainable involve-
- 3. ment of the Millennial generation (Fine, 2009), distinguished from other generations by their intense exposure at an early age to interactive technology and social media (Bolton et al., 2013). Facebook, the most detailed social media, is used primarily to maintain or solidify existing offline relationships allowing people to develop a public or semipublic profile and to emotion- ally participate with those whom they can share This article was published Online First December 21, 2017. Kaspar Schattke, Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Montréal; Ronald Ferguson, Management De- partment, John Molson School of Business, Concordia Uni- versity; Michèle Paulin, Marketing Department, John Mol- son School of Business, Concordia University. This research is a pertinent activity within Michèle Pau- lin’s Royal Bank of Canada Professorship in Strategic Re- lationship Marketing. The authors also wish to thank Marylène Gagné for her encouragement during the initial stages of this research. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kaspar Schattke, Département de psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8, Canada. E-mail: schattke.kaspar_ [email protected] T hi s do
- 8. oa dl y. Motivation Science © 2017 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 4, No. 4, 315–332 2333-8113/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000085 315 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000085.supp mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mot0000085 connections (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Ho & Dempsey, 2010; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Here, actors may be less concerned with spontaneous, single-encounter helping than with longer term sustained behavior. For example, vol- unteering to work for a nonprofit organization may be less influenced by obligation to a partic- ular person’s situation than by a decision to do good for an extended period in an organizational context (Penner, 2002; Penner, Dovidio, Piliavin, & Schroeder, 2005). Facebook can be used by organizations to empower decentralized net- works to organize and promote events and campaigns to raise money and create aware- ness (Kanter & Fine, 2010). The benefits to providers and recipients of helping remain even when the behavior occurs in a computer-
- 9. related anonymous context (Martela & Ryan, 2016). Studies of nonprofit organizations have addressed the increasing importance of social media but not the practical details of how to go about it effectively (Guo & Saxton, 2014). The purpose of our article is to address this practical gap from the theoretical perspective of motivation to support charity-linked events in a social media context. First, with respect to emo- tional identification with a charitable cause, we expand on the vast research literature regarding the motivation for engaging in prosocial behav- iors based on, among others, social identifica- tion (Tajfel, 1972; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), al- truism/egoism (Batson & Shaw, 1991), moral identity (Reed et al., 2007), gender (Eagly, 2009), and personality (Penner, 2002). Second, we address the more recent call to expand SDT research from just an analysis of autonomous versus controlled motivation, to studying the effects of the continuum of distinct motivational regulations in various charity-linked situations (Pelletier, Rocchi, Vallerand, Deci, & Ryan, 2013). We also assess the tripartite dimensions of intrinsic motivation and of integrated moti- vation, two important regulations often missing in previous SDT research (Amiot & Sansfaçon, 2011; Carbonneau, Vallerand, & Lafrenière, 2012; Chemolli & Gagné, 2014; Ferguson, Gut- berg, Schattke, Paulin, & Jost, 2015; Miquelon & Castonguay, 2017). This article presents three empirical studies of Millennial’s motivation to support charity-
- 10. linked events promoted on social media. Two were organized specifically for a charitable cause and the other was to promote a for- profit event with a charitable cause as an adjunct. Study 1 involved the promotion of an annual charity event for the cause of homeless youth. Study 2 involved a proposed charity event for the cause of breast cancer, of which the annual promotions were predominantly feminine in nature (Sulik & Zierkiewicz, 2014). Study 3 involved a charity-related for- profit fashion show for women. The partici- pants in these studies were Millennial first- year undergraduate business school students. Traditionally these students can gain an addi- tional two percent of a core-course grade by participating in research projects. No mone- tary or other incentive for participation was given. Historically, more than 65% of stu- dents take part in available research projects. This target group is particularly pertinent given that they are digitally savvy and highly engaged in social media and, as future man- agers of for-profit and nonprofit organiza- tions, they will be involved in charitable causes. In each study, participants examined Facebook event page appeals and answered questions online. They were requested to carefully examine the Facebook event cover photo, description section, photos, and a vid- eo. The design of each study involved the ad- vanced Conditional Process Model, which is particularly applicable when, the “. . . goal is to
- 11. describe and understand the conditional nature of the mechanism or mechanisms by which a variable transmits its effect on another” (Hayes, 2013, p. 325). The model’s assumptions are that (a) all direct effects function through some kind of mechanism (mediation), (b) they are contin- gent on something (moderation), and (c) any analysis which focuses only on mediation or moderation but not both is going to be incom- plete in some ways. Therefore, each study ex- amined (a) the direct effect of the emotional identification with a cause on online and offline intentions to support a charity related event, (b) the mediation of this effect by the distinct SDT motivational regulations in the SDT continuum and, (c) the moderator effects of separate Face- book page appeals as motivators to support these three different charity-linked events. 316 SCHATTKE, FERGUSON, AND PAULIN T hi s do cu m en t is co
- 16. Direct Motivational Effect of Emotional Cause Identification and Support for Charity-Linked Events Social identity theory can be an important perspective to explain motivation for prosocial behaviors (Levine, Prosser, Evans, & Reicher, 2005; Thomas, McGarty, & Mavor, 2009). So- cial identity is that part of one’s self-concept, which derives from knowledge of belonging to a certain social group together with an emo- tional and value significance of this group mem- bership (Tajfel, 1972). Social identification is found to be one of the prime motivations for participation in social movements (Stets & Burke, 2000). Central and salient social identi- ties are more likely to influence thought, feel- ing, and action because they are contextually relevant and subjectively important (Ashforth, Harrison, & Corley, 2008). Identification with a salient social group may engender a sense of “we-ness” where self-benefit and others-benefit merge leading to helping behaviors (Penner et al., 2005). More specifically, social identity theory im- plies that a sense of community should increase social engagement, volunteering, and helping because it increases one’s sense of belonging (Omoto & Snyder, 2002). Indeed, identifying with a social group has been shown to increase helping and volunteering (Simon, Stürmer, & Steffens, 2000), to enhance group cohesion and motivation (Ellemers, de Gilder, & Haslam, 2004), and to improve citizenship behaviors (Tyler & Blader, 2001). Although much pro-
- 17. social behavior is about helping individuals in need, it can also be directed at supporting groups or organizations coordinating the provi- sion of that need (Eagly, 2009; Ferguson et al., 2015). Whereas one can develop social identi- fication with facets of an organization, family or other grouping, an emotional identification can also exist with respect to a charitable cause (Thomas et al., 2009). Vanhamme, Lindgreen, Reast, and van Popering (2012) define cause identification as the degree of overlap in an individual’s self-concept and the perception of the cause. They report that the stronger the identification with the cause, the more positive are the evaluations of campaigns for that cause. However, it is imperative to investigate further this motivational link between cause identifica- tion and event support as promoted in various situations via social media. Mediation of Direct Effect of Cause Identification on Event Support via Distinct SDT Motivational Regulations Self-Determination Theory is a “macrotheory” of human motivation influenced by and dependent upon social and environmental factors (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Moller, Ryan, & Deci, 2006). SDT expands on the concepts of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by positing a continuum of behavioral regulations ranging from controlled to autono- mous motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Gagné & Deci, 2005; Pelletier, Rocchi, Vallerand, Deci, & Ryan, 2013; Vallerand, Pelletier, & Koestner, 2008). In each of these two broad categories is a
- 18. set of motivational regulations with distinct char- acteristics. Controlled motivation includes exter- nal and introjected regulations, whereas autono- mous motivation is comprised of identified and integrated regulations as well as intrinsic motiva- tion. Intrinsic motivation involves three dimen- sions: to experience stimulation, acquire knowl- edge, and accomplish (Vallerand, Blais, Brière, & Pelletier, 1989; Vallerand et al., 1993). Car- bonneau et al. (2012) described this as the Tri- partite Model, in which the intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation is seeking for sensa- tions, excitement, or aesthetic enjoyment; the intrinsic motivation to know is doing an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction of learning and exploring or understanding something new and; the intrinsic motivation toward accomplishment is deriving pleasure and satisfaction from at- tempting to surpass oneself or engaging in the process of accomplishing or creating some- thing. They report that exploratory and confir- matory factor analyses in several contexts (edu- cation, work, leisure, and sport contexts) demonstrate that the three dimensions of intrinsic motivation, although related, are nevertheless dis- tinct constructs. Thus, SDT provides a richer set of distinct regulations than simply analyzing the effects of autonomous versus controlled motivation (Fer- guson et al., 2015; Taylor, Jungert, Mageau, Schattke, Dedic, Rosenfield, & Koestner, 2014). The SDT continuum has been viewed as se- quentially moving from low to high levels of
- 19. 317MOTIVATIONS TO SUPPORT CHARITY-LINKED EVENTS T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh te d by th e A m er ic
- 23. ss em in at ed br oa dl y. self-determination (Vallerand, 1997). However, this has been questioned (Ferguson et al., 2015; Koestner & Losier, 2002). Chemolli and Gagné (2014) argued that the multidimensional treat- ment of motivation is a unique strength of SDT. However, until recently, autonomous integrated regulation has not been included in the assessment of SDT motivations and conspicuously absent in the above critique of the sequential predictive power of the SDT continuum (Amiot & Sansfa- çon, 2011; Ferguson et al., 2015). Given that in- tegrated regulation is determined by one’s closely held values, it is expected to be an important motivational factor for supporting a charitable cause with which one identifies. In addition, the majority of studies have employed an overall measure of intrinsic motivation rather than assessing the individual effects of the tripartite dimensions.
- 24. Moderation of Direct Effects of Cause Identification on Event Support via Facebook Appeals According to Hayes (2013), moderation anal- ysis is pertinent when an investigator seeks to determine whether a given variable is thought to influence the size of the direct effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable. In the present research, we chose three contexts, in which the motivation for supporting a chari- table-linked event was thought to be directly determined by the participants’ emotional iden- tification with the cause. Sequentially, we as- sessed a single moderating effect relevant to each context: self-versus -others benefit appeals in Study 1, gender in Study 2, and appeals for a commercial product alone versus a combined cause/product in Study 3. The Empirical Studies In general, for each of the three studies we hypothesized that (a) in the context of events linked to a cause, the strength of emotional cause identification would have a positive direct effect on Millennials’ online and offline support of the event, (b) this direct effect would be mediated (indirect effect) by different SDT mo- tivational regulations depending on the event studied, and (c) the direct effect would be mod- erated (conditional direct effect) by the type of promotional Facebook page appeal. Figure 1 illustrates the expected relationships.
- 25. Study 1: Homeless Youth Event Study 1 examined motivations for support of the “Five Days for the Homeless” event (Five Days for the Homeless, https://5days.ca/about). This annual event began at one university busi- ness school in 2005 and now involves 26 with total donations of nearly two million dollars. For five days, students, professors, and celebri- ties live and sleep overnight on the street sur- rounding the university. Volunteers solicit funds from the student population and the pub- SDT REGULATIONS Intrinsic/to experience Intrinsic/to know Intrinsic/to accomplish Integrated regulation Identified regulation Introjected regulation External regulation EVENT SUPPORT Online Offline IDENTIFICATION WITH CHARITABLE CAUSE Study 1 FACEBOOK APPEAL Self-Benefit
- 26. Others-Benefit Study 2 GENDER Male Female Study 3 FACEBOOK APPEAL Product/Cause Product c’ bi ai Figure 1. Conditional Process Model and study overview. 318 SCHATTKE, FERGUSON, AND PAULIN T hi s do cu m en t is co
- 31. lic. Besides examining participants’ online and offline intentions to support the event, we also examined their online and offline self-reported behaviors two weeks following the event. Method Participants and procedures. Study 1 used a between-subjects design involving N � 339 first-year undergraduate business school students. The “Five days for the Homeless” Facebook event page was manipulated to pro- vide two appeals, which were randomly as- signed to two groups. One appeal mainly pro- moted benefits to others (n � 165) and the other appeal benefits to the self (n � 174). The self- benefit appeal emphasized “where will you be sleeping tonight”, “sleepers are heroes”, “great for their CVs”, “free tickets to a rock concert”, and “tax breaks”. The others-benefit appeal em- phasized that “we take to the streets to raise funds”, “it makes ‘cents’ to participate”, “by working together we can help the homeless”, and “there is strength in numbers”. Measures. Descriptive statistics, scale reli- abilities, and intercorrelations for all Study 1 variables are presented in Table 1. All measures were 5-point Likert scales. The dependent vari- ables included two 4-item scales of intentions to support the event. The online support scale was prefaced with the statement: “The Facebook event page makes me want to. . . .” The items were: “. . . respond that I like some of the postings”, “. . . post my comments to it”, “. . . share it with my friends and others in my net-
- 32. work”, and “. . . share some of the videos, pictures and links”. The offline support scale was prefaced with the statement “Other things considered, I would . . .”. The items were “. . . attend”, “. . . make a donation”, “. . . volunteer to help out”, and “. . . willingly be on the organizing committee”. The independent variable of emotional iden- tification with the cause of homeless youth was assessed with a 4-item scale prefaced by the statement “The cause is important to me be- cause . . .” followed by “it is personally close to my heart”, “I know someone who has suffered”, “it can touch my family or those close to me”, and “it is one of the most important concerns for people my age”. The proposed mediation vari- ables were the seven motivational regulations in the SDT continuum measured using a 28-item T ab le 1 M ea n s, S ta n d
- 57. � .0 5. � � p � .0 1. 319MOTIVATIONS TO SUPPORT CHARITY-LINKED EVENTS T hi s do cu m en t is co py ri gh
- 61. er an d is no t to be di ss em in at ed br oa dl y. scale (see Appendix) adapted from Guay, Ma- geau, and Vallerand (2003) as well as Amiot and Sansfaçon (2011). The scales included four items for each of the measures: the three dimen- sions of intrinsic motivation; to experience stimulation, to know, and to accomplish as well
- 62. as integrated, identified, introjected, and exter- nal regulations. The motivational regulations scales were introduced with the statement, “I would become engaged in the “Five Days for the Homeless” event because. . . .” The self- versus others- benefit Facebook appeals were analyzed as the dichotomous moderator vari- able (self � 0, other � 1) of the direct effect of cause identification on the online and offline support of the “Five days for the Homeless” event. The participants were also contacted by e- mail in the two weeks following the “Five Days for the Homeless” event. They were asked to respond by indicating which, if any, actions they took with regard to the event. The reported actions were grouped into two categories, on- line and event behaviors. For example, online actions could be donating online, following the event, commenting or sharing information on- line. Event related actions included being a sleeper, visiting the site, being a volunteer, dis- cussing with sleepers and volunteers, donating via a volunteer or attending opening and closing ceremonies. No monetary or other incentives were offered in return for this information. A total of N � 149 participants (44%) responded to the e-mail request. Results The descriptive results in Table 1 show that online and offline intentions to support the homeless event were strongly correlated, r � .60, p � .001 but not strongly enough to be
- 63. redundant, which justifies conducting separate analyses for online and offline intentions. More- over, identification with the cause was posi- tively correlated with online, r � .44, p � .001 and offline intentions, r � .57, p � .001 to support the event. Furthermore, participants tended to have higher mean values for autono- mous forms of motivation than for controlled ones and, overall, the correlations of cause iden- tification and support intentions seem to be higher with autonomous than with controlled forms of motivation. Analyses of the conditional process models (see Table 2) showed significant direct effects of identification with the cause on both online (b � .29, SE � .10, p � .002) and offline (b � .34, SE � .08, p � .001) support for the “Five days for the Homeless” event, as indicated by unstandardized coefficients. The direct effect of cause identification was found to be mediated (indirect effect) through intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation for both online and of- fline support (see Table 2). Also, integrated regulation mediated the direct effect of cause identification on offline but not online support. Moderation analyses showed a significant in- teraction term between the Facebook appeal type (self � 0, other � 1) and identification with the cause for online (b � .34, SE � .12, p � .004) as well as offline intentions (b � .24, SE � .10, p � .016). Online support for the “Five Days for the Homeless” event was stron- ger for the others-benefit (b � .63, SE � .09, p � .001) compared to the self-benefit appeal
- 64. (b � .29, SE � .09, p � .002). Similar results were found for offline event support for the appeals to others-benefit (b � .58, SE � .07, p � .001) and self-benefit (b � .34, SE � .08, p � .001). In the follow-up study, there were no signif- icant differences in the previous online and of- fline support for the Five Days for the Homeless event between those participants who did or did not respond to the follow-up email request for event behavior information (Online: M � 3.33, SD � 0.90 vs. M � 3.52, SD � 0.93, t(337) � �1.80, p � .07, r � .10, and actual offline actions: M � 3.13, SD � 0.81 vs. M � 3.26, SD � 0.93; t (337) � �1.29, p � .20, r � .07). Those respondents who reported that they actu- ally engaged in supporting the event online and offline had also previously indicated signifi- cantly higher intentions to do so than those who did not (Online: M � 3.65, SD � 0.70 vs. M � 3.08, SD � 0.96, t(122) � 3.73, p � .001, r � .32, and offline actions: M � 3.24, SD � 0.74 vs. M � 2.85, SD � 0.93, t(122) � 2.39, p � .018, r � .21). Discussion First, the findings of Study 1 are consistent with the literature demonstrating the positive motivational relationship between the degree of emotional feelings of cause identification and 320 SCHATTKE, FERGUSON, AND PAULIN T
- 69. at ed br oa dl y. the engagement in prosocial helping behaviors. They fully support the hypothesis that the strength of the identification with the cause of homeless youth directly predicts Millennials’ online and offline intentions to support the “Five Days for the Homeless” event. Second, these results validate previous re- search showing that identification with a cause engenders autonomous rather than controlled motivation in support of prosocial …