Experimental Design

10/9/11

CRS 287

Experimental Article Review

The article titled “Improving the Effectiveness of Fundraising Messages: The Impact of Charity Goal Attainment, Message Framing, and Evidence on Persuasion” and written by three intriguingly bright and creative authors (Enny Das, Peter Kerkhof & Joyce Kuiper) makes a clear hypothesis through experimental study. The main claim of this article is simple and very prominent within the beginning of the text; they assess the effectiveness of fundraising and they tested that hypothesis with a factorial design “The hypotheses were tested in a 2 (goal attainment: yes/no) 2 (evidence: anecdotal/ statistical)2 (framing: positive/negative) between-subjects factorial design; 160 participants took part in the research, of which 71 were male and 89 were female. The mean age was 32. Two participants were removed from the analyses because of outlying values on the dependent measures (SD 3).”

By using a factorial design they were able to use multiple independent variables, specifically a 2x2x2 factorial design. Each variable being bi-polar (only having two possible answers) in a sense. Within the text it is evident that framing, evidence, and goal attainment are all independents variables that also interrelate throughout the article. The hypothesis is effectively supported based on the way the experiment was conducted and the results of the experiment. They used the illness leprosy in the experiment and framed the information given to each participant positively or negatively, from there on the followed with a questionnaire which asked each participant questions and told them to answer on a 1-5 scale 5 being very much. By doing a bi-polar method(since their was on two options for all the variables) they in a way manipulated the test to get either positive or negative results. They sort of encouraged the way the participants felt because there were not given an in between they were expected to choose good or...