Evaluating Charitable Crowdfunding based on Storytelling Linguistic Cues: A Narrative Persuasion Perspective

Charitable crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way for people to seek help from the public. Yet, many charitable crowdfunding campaigns suffer from underfunding. Given that project description is the primary source of information for fundraisers to present their cause to prospective donors, the platform may preemptively assess the success rate of charitable crowdfunding campaigns based on the narrative elements embedded with such description. Furthermore, though prior research about narrative persuasion (i.e., storytelling) has alluded to generic mechanisms (i.e. identifiable character, imaginable plot, and verisimilitude) in eliciting empathic feeling, limited attention has been paid to scrutinizing the effects of narrative elements in driving donation behaviors in charitable crowdfunding. To this end, this study attempts to elucidate how linguistic cues embedded in the project narratives is associated with donation performance in charitable crowdfunding.