---

Individuals are often confronted with donation appeals and many factors influence their donation behaviour. This study investigates the influence of numeracy and different presentation formats of the donation appeals as well as the underlying mechanisms on the donation behaviour. Participants (N = 183) were given information about the people in need and how they could help them, either in a gain frame format or in a non-loss frame format. Their willingness to donate, their donations amount and their affective reactions were measured. The results demonstrated that the empathy of individuals with lower numeracy was suggestible to changes in presentation format (i.e. rises in the non-loss frame format), whereas high numerate individuals were not influenced. It was also shown that if a donation appeal was presented in a non-loss frame format the donation amount rose more, the lower the numeracy of the individuals is. These results provide a further insight on the influencing factors of donation behaviour. In many cases, framing a donation appeal in a non-loss way might lead to higher donation amounts, but this does not apply for every individual case.

---

Studied Psychology at the University of Vienna and received the diploma degree in 2012. She was Research Assistant at the Department of Applied Social Psychology at the University of Vienna. Now she is completing her studies in Human Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna and Medical Informatics at the University of Technology in Vienna.

---