IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v230y2025ics0921800924003707.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Charismatic species, matching, and demographics in conservation donations: An experimental investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Chambers, Catherine
  • Chambers, Paul
  • Johnson, David

Abstract

Conservation organizations employ charismatic species to appeal to potential donors and increase contributions. However, evidence that this strategy increases donations is mixed. In an experimental setting, we investigate the effects of species charisma and the characteristics of potential donors on donations to conservation organizations. We conducted a modified dictator game through MTurk with 330 subjects, exploring subjects’ responses to one of sixteen treatments that differ across three dimensions. The first dimension involves exposure to an image that varies among subjects in terms of charisma. In the second dimension, we use differing donation matching rates to examine the effectiveness of matching gifts. With the final dimension, we consider real versus hypothetical scenarios. Our key findings are that the effects of charismatic species on donations are limited after controlling for the characteristics of the subjects and that those faced with a hypothetical scenario donate significantly more than those with real stakes. These results suggest conservation organizations, particularly those with a national or international focus, should consider the characteristics of potential donors targeted by their fundraising campaigns rather than relying on images of charismatic species.

Suggested Citation

  • Chambers, Catherine & Chambers, Paul & Johnson, David, 2025. "Charismatic species, matching, and demographics in conservation donations: An experimental investigation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:230:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924003707
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108473
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800924003707
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108473?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Charismatic species; Experimental economics; Donations; Conservation; Dictator game;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:230:y:2025:i:c:s0921800924003707. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.