The impact of affective congruence on charitable giving

Abstract

Although charitable aid requests often include multiple salient affective features, their interactive effects on donation behavior and the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying their combined influence remain unclear. In four studies, including six behavioral experiments and one Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we examine how the affective congruence of request features influences giving decisions. Across studies, requests with affectively congruent features, regardless of valence, elicited greater donations. The impact of affective congruence was mediated by increased positive aroused affect experienced by donors. Convergently, at the neural level, congruent requests elicited greater activity in the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc), a brain region associated with positive aroused affect. Increased NAcc activity subsequently predicted donation decisions, bridging responses to stimulus input and behavioral output. These findings suggest that both positive and negatively valenced charitable requests can effectively increase donations if their salient affective features are congruent through neuro-affective mechanisms that support positive aroused affect. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of how affective congruence in charitable appeals engage neural reward systems to drive prosocial behavior. By identifying the NAcc as a bridge from request stimulus to giving behavior, these data illustrate the intersection of emotion, decision-making, and prosociality at both behavioral and neural levels.