The Logic of Negative Appeals
Graphic Imagery, Affective Empathy, and Foreign Development Aid
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6146975 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A Burcu Bayram (0000-0003-0538-9791, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville), Marcus Holmes (0000-0001-5491-4463, William & Mary) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2634-3797 • E-ISSN: 2634-3797 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/isagsq/ksab032 |
| OpenAlex | W3213675913 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 42 |
The use of negative visual imagery of the poor to conjure feelings of pity, guilt, and empathy (also called “poverty porn”) is premised on an emotional mechanism that is supposed to elicit compassion and giving behavior, and yet the very emotional nature of the response to this kind of negative imagery can have the exact opposite effect by evoking compassion fatigue and psychological numbing. Our study interrogates this puzzle. Leveraging original data from survey experiments, we show that exposure to negative and personalized images of aid recipients in despair actually increases support for foreign development aid. In contrast, descriptive statistical information about global poverty moves people very little, or not at all. Our findings have implications for understanding the role imagery plays in shaping public opinion on foreign aid and for development communication. This study builds a bridge between research on foreign aid and humanitarian communication
Cognitive psychology · Compassion · Empathy · Feeling · Pity · Political science · Poverty · Humor Studies and Applications · Media Influence and Health · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology
Iconic photographs and the ebb and flow of empathic response to humanitarian disasters
Testing for Altruism and Social Pressure in Charitable Giving
“If I look at the mass I will never act”
Helping a Victim or Helping the Victim
The singularity effect of identified victims in separate and joint evaluations
Empathy is hard work
Positive feelings reward and promote prosocial behavior
Distant Suffering
The Pornography of Poverty
Public Opinion and Foreign Aid
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Discourse and Emotions in International Relations
Post-humanitarianism
Affective motivations to help others
The “identified victim” effect
The Discourse of Global Compassion
Development Made Sexy
Making and Unmaking Cosmopolitans
An Empathy-Helping Perspective on Consumers' Responses to Fund-Raising Appeals
Race, Paternalism, and Foreign Aid
Individual and country-level factors affecting support for foreign aid
Down the Rathole? Public Support for US Foreign Aid
Who Supports Global Economic Engagement? The Sources of Preferences in American Foreign Economic Policy
The Effects of Authoritarian Iconography
The visual dehumanisation of refugees
Feeling their pain
Images, emotions, and international politics
Does Use of Emotion Increase Donations and Volunteers for Nonprofits
Channeling Hearts and Minds
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |