The Emotional Impact of Pictures when Crowdfunding for Healthcare: An Experimental Study

This study investigates how visual stimuli influence cancer-related charitable online giving. Particularly, the study investigates how different types of crowdfunding campaign pictures affect donors’ decision to contribute to specific campaigns. We gathered crowdfunding campaigns from GoFundMe and divided them according to the main picture used in each campaign, i.e., cancer-related pictures vs. non-cancer-related pictures and pictures of individuals vs. pictures of groups. We then conducted an online experiment and a laboratory experiment using physiological measures. The results from the experiments show that cancer-related pictures receive more money and more immediate attention and arousal than non-cancer-related pictures. Furthermore, group pictures receive more money and more total attention than individual pictures. The physiological measures from the laboratory experiment provide valuable knowledge about the underlying emotional mechanisms involved in the donation process.