Sympathy and Guilt: Optimizing Advertising Appeals for Charitable Giving to Generation Z

The high degree of social consciousness among Generation Z (Gen Z) makes the cohort a critical target for nonprofits. Our study investigates the relative impact of advertising appeals based on guilt and sympathy on Gen Z students in the U.S. The study fills a research gap by comparing the impact of both emotions in one study and examining their effect on Gen Z vs. non-Gen Z individuals. Findings indicate that advertising appeals eliciting guilt and sympathy are more impactful among Gen Z than non-Gen Z individuals, but that sympathy is more effective among the Gen Z cohort. We relate these findings to sympathy being more sensitive to the Gen Z desire not to be manipulated by guilt. In addition, the effect of sympathy is stronger among women than men among the Gen Z cohort. Results are valuable to nonprofits seeking to make inroads on charitable giving with Gen Z.