Although textual and facial emotion expressions in prosocial appeals have been studied separately in past research, there has been little work on the misalignment (compared to alignment) between them. Using a multi-method approach comprising experiments and panel data of 6,098 crowdfunding projects from Gofundme, we investigate how emotions expressed in the cover image and the project description interact to increase potential donors’ engagement as measured by metrics relevant to the platform, i.e., donation amount per donor. More specifically, we focus on the misalignment (vs. alignment) between happy and sad facial expressions in images and the positive and negative emotions in the project description. Our empirical analysis shows that misalignment scenarios have a bigger positive impact on the donor’s contributed amount, compared to alignment scenarios. We also show that such a relative impact is heterogeneous and differs based on expressed urgency, beneficiary age, and progress towards donation goal. We make a theoretical contribution via assessing the extent of cognitive processing in misalignment vs alignment cases. We propose situations with a tradeoff such that the extent of cognitive processing of multimodal information content can be reduced due to simultaneous activation of affective processing. Our research provides strategic recommendations for platforms to increase donors’ engagement and platform revenue management.

尽管在过去的研究中已经分别研究了亲社会诉求中的文本和面部情感表达，但对它们之间的错位（与对齐相比）的研究很少。我们使用包括 Gofundme 6,098 个众筹项目的实验和面板数据在内的多方法方法，研究封面图片和项目描述中表达的情感如何相互作用，以提高潜在捐助者的参与度（通过与平台相关的指标（即捐赠）来衡量）每个捐赠者的金额。更具体地说，我们关注图像中快乐和悲伤的面部表情以及项目描述中的积极和消极情绪之间的错位（与对齐）。我们的实证分析表明，与对齐情景相比，错位情景对捐助者的捐款金额具有更大的积极影响。我们还表明，这种相对影响是异质的，并且根据所表达的紧迫性、受益人年龄和捐赠目标的进展情况而有所不同。我们通过评估错位与对齐情况下认知处理的程度做出了理论贡献。我们提出了一种权衡的情况，使得多模态信息内容的认知处理程度可以由于情感处理的同时激活而减少。我们的研究为平台提供了战略建议，以提高捐助者的参与度和平台收入管理。