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Being Alone Deserves More Sympathy? Influences of Victim Number, Cause Acuteness and Individual
Differences in Self-Construal on Charitable Advertising Effectiveness

likely to hold favorable attitudes toward ads that express values congruent with their self‐
construal. Emphasis on an independent self-construal is often associated with uniqueness,
self-expression, self-realization, self-promotion and directness. Individuals who have an
independent self-construal (“independents”) are less willing to put on a show to please

those around them; they see themselves as autonomous and unique, and prefer to stick to
their own attitudes and values across situations. People who have an interdependent self-
construal (“interdependents”) see themselves as relational and interconnected with others

(Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1993). This study aims to investigate whether
these differences in self-construal impact on consumer responses to a single, identified
victim and a group of victims presented in either sudden disasters or ongoing tragedies
distinctly.
We further propose that interdependents are more responsive to a group of victims (vs.

a single victim) when the charitable issue is a sudden disaster since interdependents con-
sider it important to pay attention to the collective welfare and to express concern for oth-
ers (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). People who have an interdependent self-construal tend

to perceive themselves as group members. They feel more connected to a group than to a
person. Such feelings of belonging will evoke the interdependents’ guilt when the story for
a charity opportunity presents a group of victims (vs. a charity story presenting a single
victim) affected by a sudden disaster. People who have an interdependent self-construal
feel more responsible to help others and work hard for social welfare, and we expect them

to pay attention to and show concern for charitable issues involving an ongoing tragedy.
On the other hand, when people with an independent self-construal are willing
to give, they may prefer fulfilling personal interests and accomplishing their own

goals. Charitable behaviors and volunteer services may help independents pursuit
personal autonomy. They may feel that helping a single victim in an uncontrollable and
unpredictable disaster is more likely to accomplish their charitable goals (vs. helping a
group of victims). Besides, compared with a sudden disaster, an ongoing tragedy is not
emergent enough to catch the attention of independents. The independents will then feel

that processing that charity message (an ongoing tragedy) is redundant. Thus, we further
propose that a story of an ongoing tragedy may not matter to independents, whether it
involves a single victim or a group of victims.

To test above-mentioned prepositions, we use a 2 (victim number: single vs.

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