The interactive effects of religiosity and recognition in increasing donation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a three-way interaction between the two motivational
orientations of religiosity (i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic) and recognition (in this study, an explicit expectation
that behavior is recognized) on charitable behavior. Further, drawing upon the evolutionary psychology
perspective, the status motive is predicted to mediate the predicted effects.
Design/methodology/approach – Three experimental studies were conducted using a 2 (intrinsic
religiosity: low/high; measured) � 2 (extrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured) � 2 (recognition: yes/no;
manipulated) between-subjects design to examine the predicted effects on likelihood to donate and donation
allocations in two Asian countries, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Findings – The results show that recognition increases charitable behavior among consumers with a high
level of extrinsic religiosity but low level of intrinsic religiosity (Studies 1a, 1b and 2). Further, a status motive
mediates the predicted effects (Study 2).
Research limitations/implications – The present research provides a novel perspective on how
marketers can purposively use recognition in charitable advertising to encourage charitable behavior among
religious consumers – but only in Asia.
Practical implications – This paper presents the case for how a non-profit organization can develop
charitable advertising for disaster relief in Indonesia (Studies 1a and 1b) and Malaysia (Study 2). The findings
of this research could potentially be extended to other organizations in Asia or other countries where
religiosity places an important role in consumer behavior.
Originality/value – This research shows the interactive effect between extrinsic religiosity, intrinsic
religiosity and recognition can increase charitable behavior in Asia