How social experience encourages donation intention to charitable crowdfunding projects on social media: Empathy and personal impulsiveness

Embedding charitable crowdfunding into social media is a new practice that encourages pro-social behaviors. The rich social experience in charitable crowdfunding on social media distinguishes this context from other conventional contexts like charity fundraising websites. Specifically, this study incorporates social experience, empathy and personal impulsiveness to investigate donation intention in this new context. By analyzing survey data collected in China, this study finds that empathy mediates the effects of interaction with fundraiser and perceived proximity with donatee on a user's donation intention. Social influence on social media platform is found to have positive influences on empathy and on donation intention. This study also investigates how empathy's influence on donation intention varies by personal impulsiveness. It contributes to extant literature by highlighting the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of personal impulsiveness. It also provides practical insights to encourage pro-social behaviors.