THE VARYING IMPACT OF SELF AND OTHER-ORIENTED MESSAGE APPEALS ON VOLUNTEERING

Abstract

Volunteerism is a means of contributing either to the society, the organization, or the individual. Either for satisfying individual’s self-interest or for altruistically helping others, volunteering creates value. The study aims to examine the impact of self-versus other-oriented messages on intentions and attitudes of existing and potential volunteers. Two studies were designed using fictitious foundations, to find out the potential effects of attitude towards recruitment ads and intention to volunteer for the organization. According to Study 1, which consisted of mainly volunteering adults, the other-oriented message is found to be more activating than the self-oriented message. However, in the Study 2, which comprised of a mainly non-volunteer student sample, the two appeal’s intentional effects were in opposite direction. Participants were found out to have higher intention to volunteer for the organizations when self-oriented messages were used. Follow-up analysis of the combined data revealed that non-volunteers’ intention to volunteer was higher with self-oriented appeal than with an other-oriented appeal. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications on volunteerism and linked to recent findings regarding the role of self-and other-oriented motives on determining how to approach both volunteers and non-volunteers in an effective manner.