Emotions are drivers of change. What happens when you feel rage? When you wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, begin your day, and then are hit with injustice? A man suffocating to death due to his skin color, children crying in lockdown from yet another school shooting, the suicide rate climbing for transgender youth—what do you do with the frustration and anger brought about by continued violence and inequity?
This feeling, like all emotions, is important. They spark interest, inspire passion, and empower movements. By triggering an emotion, people are pushed to respond, whether through protests, donations, or outreach. In creating and maintaining movements, emotions and empathy are crucial. But different emotions can drive people to react in different ways.
Anger has shown to lead to higher charitable donations specifically for causes that restore equity such as paying for medical bills resulting from discrimination or violence. Pride has shown to be a particular motivator for the millennial generation as they prefer to support causes they feel involved in and valued in creating impact. And awe can draw people in, making them more willing to help others and inspiring them to take action.
Understanding how different emotions, both positive and negative, play into movements can illuminate what emotions organizations should seek to evoke to maximize impact for charitable causes. Even more so, we can learn how to inspire continuous change rather than stop-and-go awareness to better create an equitable future.
What The Research Says
Both positive and negative emotions have their place in the change-making process. Some of the most common positive emotions we see in empathetic appeals are joy, hope, awe, and pride.
These emotions make participants feel good — that their support is making a difference and that with their help, situations can change. Studies have shown that using these positive emotions in impact messaging helps create longer lasting donor relations. If donors feel a positive connection between their giving and the cause, they’re more likely to stick with it in the long-term.
However, positive messaging lacks urgency. Hope and awe may not trigger or move an audience into action as effectively as negative emotions. This is due to the “catching” effect. People will automatically and unconsciously “catch” others’ feelings by responding to displayed emotions such as facial expressions. A sad face, therefore, will lead viewers to feel the depicted pain. This empathy connection makes viewers want to do something to stop or change the cause of the emotion. So, a fundraising advertisement displaying happy emotions may lead to the perception that no immediate action is needed whereas a sad face may elicit higher levels of sympathy and provoke action.
While negative emotions like sadness, guilt, anger, and fear are good initial motivators, they do not make for a long-lasting movement. Oversaturation of these emotions risks alienating audiences. Messages that evoke too strong of a particular emotion can make people uncomfortable and compel them to block-out your communications altogether. To prevent an overwhelming sense of helplessness or your audience tuning out your message altogether, negative emotions should only be used on a short-term basis.
The Place for Each Emotion
We can now see how both positive and negative emotions have their benefits and limitations in nonprofit messaging and movement creation. Negative emotions are better for short-term, action-spurring campaigns whereas positive emotions are better for long-term engagement and relationship building.
No emotion is better than another — they’re all necessary in a continuous, successful movement. Just take a look at some of the major movements in this past decade…
Black Lives Matter
The Black Lives Matter movement, although present before, ramped up after the murder of George Floyd. This uptick was sparked by anger, grief, and fear. These negative emotions revolving around injustice were the firestarter for the movement. But positive emotions keep it alive. Relief when a state-wide bill is passed. Hope when fellow human beings stand together. These emotions uplift and encourage changemakers to press on, knowing that even though progress is slow, it is still happening.
Never Again
The Never Again movement followed a similar format. After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, Parkland students organized an anti-gun movement which resulted in March For Our Lives as well as nation-wide conversations about gun violence. This movement was triggered by shock and quickly followed by grief, fear, sadness, and anger. Pride, however, was key. The fact that young people led this movement resulted in a sense of pride in the capabilities of the new generation. It was a rallying cry for other young people, a wake-up call that they could take action, and this was how. Without pride and newfound confidence, this movement would have fallen with the news cycle just like the hundreds of school shootings that came before it.
LGBTQ+
An example of a matured movement that’s faced the test of time is the LGBTQ+ movement. Reignited with outrage from a police raid in the Stonewall riots in 1969, the LGBTQ+ movement is well acquainted with emotional appeals. Shifting to negative emotions during moments of injustice, this movement has also always emphasized love and joy. Slogans such as “love is love”, the inclusive symbolism of the iconic rainbow flag, and the annual recognition month being called PRIDE incites positive feelings. These positive feelings in combination with the negative helped keep the movement top-of-mind and stable. The fact that it’s been well and alive for over 50 years and has accomplished so much speaks to how different emotions are needed at different pressure points of change.
Using Empathy in Storytelling
Emotions are key to movements. People want to be a part of positive change. They want to make an impact. But how do you get them to take that step? And how do you engage them to continue their support after that?
Stories.
Stories are at the center of human connection. Like visceral language, they aid in memorization of your key messages and can motivate people to act upon them. Tell stories that evoke emotions from your audience, both positive and negative. Be intentional about the particular emotion you’re trying to evoke based on the action you want your audience to take. Tell them uplifting stories to reinforce the impact their support has on real people and communities. Tell them bitter stories of injustice and heartbreak to broach the wall to action. Be strategic yet heartfelt to spur empathy without overwhelming them.
Stories are an integral part of the human experience and are our best way of connecting emotionally with each other. Utilizing a stronger storytelling framework can transform the way your organization tells its stories. Your organization will be able to tell stories that ignite your supporters and spark actions, fueling a movement for good.
Want to learn more about strategic storytelling? Read our blog about how to Connect Emotionally Through The Power of Storytelling or download our free Storytelling Guide.
