‘Fit for charity’: the moderating role of private self-focus in the persuasiveness of regulatory fit

The present research extends work on the ‘the value from fit’ principle by showing that regulatory fit effects on charitable behavior are stronger for consumers high in private self-focus. Based on previous research showing that individuals high in private self-focus are more affected by external information, we propose that consumers high in private self-focus process charity information that matches (vs. mismatches) knowledge stored in memory more easily, resulting in more positive attitudes and more generous donations. A series of three studies, in which participants were presented with charity information that either matched or mismatched their regulatory (promotion or prevention) focus, showed that private self-focus moderates the relation between regulatory fit and actual charity donations (studies 1a and 1b). Moreover, we provide evidence that processing fluency is the underlying mechanism accounting for the role of private self-focus (study 2).