The investigation of how consumers behave on their smartphones is of growing interest to marketers because the typical user now spends three hours and 15 minutes a day on the device. Furthermore, some 15% of the population no longer uses a traditional computer but conducts all business on a smartphone, Hock says.<\/p>\n
Discovering the smartphone\u2019s egocentric bias<\/strong><\/p>\n The researchers had heard anecdotal evidence from charities, including many they spoke with in Connecticut, that their efforts weren\u2019t getting strong responses on smartphones. Their first task was to figure out why.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wondered if it was because users had security concerns about donating through a smartphone. Or, maybe it was too difficult to process a donation using a hand-held device,\u2019\u2019 Hock says.<\/p>\n Through their research, Herd, Hock, and Ferguson discovered that consumers are more self-focused when using a smartphone. They process information and make different decisions than they would when using a traditional computer.<\/p>\n \u201cThe smartphone feels like a part of us, and we use it to focus on ourselves and our interests,\u2019\u2019 Hock says. \u201cBut charitable giving requires altruism and empathy. We tested our hypothesis with three studies, and it turned out to be the variable that explained the majority of the mobile-giving gap.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n In their first study, the UConn researchers surveyed 232 individuals, with half participating on computers and the others using smartphones. The participants were paid a small sum for completing a survey, and then offered a small bonus which they could keep or donate to a local American Red Cross chapter.<\/p>\n More than 52% of those working on a computer donated the bonus sum to the Red Cross, but only about 34% of those using a smartphone did the same, confirming the egocentric nature of smartphone use.<\/p>\n In a second study, participants were asked if they wanted to donate a small bonus to the Salvation Army or keep it. That study also revealed a significant effect based on device type, with a lower percentage of participants on smartphones willing to donate. It also showed that participants were less focused on other people on their smartphones as opposed to PCs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe studied the Forbes Top 100 charities, and found that their ads were virtually identical, regardless of platform,\u2019\u2019 Hock says. \u201cBy using a one-size-fits-all approach, they are leaving money on the table.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cMost companies don\u2019t seem to be adapting their materials to the smartphone user, except for the most minimal changes,\u2019\u2019 Herd says. \u201cPeople think and act differently when they\u2019re on a mobile device.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Charities don\u2019t need to spend much to focus their campaigns<\/strong><\/p>\n If the negative impact of smartphones on donation behavior occurs because individuals are less focused on other people, then highlighting other people in the call for donations might work, the team theorized. That\u2019s exactly what the researchers tested in their final study, where they partnered with an alliance of German humanitarian-aid agencies. At the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the organization was seeking aid for Ukrainian people and had employed a straight-forward appeal for financial assistance: We provide emergency help for the Ukraine \u2013 Donate Now.<\/em><\/p>\n The UConn team created a second advertising campaign that said: The people suffering in Ukraine need help \u2013 Donate Now.<\/em><\/p>\n With the new ad, the click-through rates were higher on smartphones, which served as a proxy of donation likelihood, thereby closing the mobile giving gap. \u201cThe \u2018other-focused\u2019 ad made all the difference because it drew people out of their smartphone self-absorption,\u201d Hock says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to close the mobile-giving gap with just a little tweaking of the original ad, and it was something that could be achieved without incurring additional expenses,\u2019\u2019 he says. \u201cWhat we liked about our findings is that charities really don\u2019t need to spend more money, and they don\u2019t necessarily need to attract new donors.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWithout creating a unique and \u2018other-focused\u2019 appeal to potential donors who are using smartphones, charities aren\u2019t maximizing their fundraising potential,\u201d Herd says. It is a donation strategy that can easily be implemented.<\/p>\n The nature of charitable giving is changing quickly. Online giving has grown by 42% since 2019 and mobile giving via smartphones grew to 28% of total donations in 2021, according to the research team.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a group, we were interested in understanding how the recent rise in mobile phone usage may impact\u00a0charitable\u00a0giving, a topic that is particularly pertinent in the wake of various ongoing global crises,\u2019\u2019 Ferguson says. \u201cThrough this research, our goal is to provide real, actionable insights to help charities increase donations by better understanding how to account for device type in their charitable\u00a0appeals.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Although the researchers focused on charitable giving, their discoveries could have broader ramifications on other types of altruistic pursuits, such as recruiting volunteers, choosing to help the environment by recycling and addressing broad concerns about health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A ‘mobile giving gap’ is a problem for charities as smartphone dominance steadily rises<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":211658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2460,2076,1862,2235,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-211653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-research","category-busn","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 22:44:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211666,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211653\/revisions\/211666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/211658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211653"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=211653"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=211653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/bus191206_faculty_staff_headshots_stefan_hock-2-300x300.jpg\")
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