The effect of political ideology and message frame on donation intent during the COVID-19 pandemic

We investigate COVID-19 related consumers’ donation intent predicated on their political ideology and the message frame - one emphasising the statistical number of affected victims, and the other focusing on a specifically identified victim. Across three studies, we find that the impact of the message frame depends on consumers’ political ideology. Politically conservative consumers respond to the identifiable victim (vs. statistical victims)...