Take Action
Research Details
Should I Talk about Cancer? Onset Controllability and Relatedness Shape Skepticism and Sympathy toward Health Self-Disclosures in Crowdfunding
Abstract
We study the effect of entrepreneurs’ health disclosures — such as revealing that one is a cancer survivor — on crowdfunding investment and support. Health self-disclosures, compared to disclosing other personal information, are shown to elicit conflicting psychological mechanisms of skepticism and sympathy among consumers. Importantly, attributions about the onset of the disclosed health issue moderate responses to the disclosure. When the disclosed health issue is perceived to be more controllable, disclosures increase skepticism of the intent behind the disclosure; but when the health issue onset is perceived to be less controllable, disclosures increase sympathy. Presenting the disclosed health issue as related to the crowdfunding project attenuates the negative effect of skepticism while preserving the positive effect of sympathy. These findings highlight novel mechanisms associated with self-disclosures, present causal evidence, and the bounds of such effects. Substantively, this research suggests that calibrated health self-disclosures can be beneficial in the crowdfunding context.
Type
Working Paper
Author(s)
Chethana Achar, Der-Wei Huang, Nidhi Agrawal, Adam Duhachek
Date Published
2024
Citations
Achar, Chethana, Der-Wei Huang, Nidhi Agrawal, and Adam Duhachek. 2024. Should I Talk about Cancer? Onset Controllability and Relatedness Shape Skepticism and Sympathy toward Health Self-Disclosures in Crowdfunding.