Multi-modal emotion expression and online charity crowdfunding success.

Online crowdfunding platforms offer a valuable channel to raise funding for various philanthropic causes, and fundraisers need to understand how to present campaign appeals to motivate charity giving decisions. This study examines the relationship between multi-modal emotion expression in campaign messages and charity crowdfunding success. Specifically, we explore the interaction of two modalities, including the visual modality expressed through beneficiaries' face images and the verbal modality expressed through text descriptions. Using data collected from a leading charity crowdfunding platform, we find superiority of the verbal modality to the visual modality of emotion expression in explaining crowdfunding campaign success. In addition, emotion consistency between visual and verbal modalities helps mitigate the failure of online charity crowdfunding campaigns, suggesting a congruency effect . This study offers a new theoretical understanding of the role of multi-modal emotion expression in online charity crowdfunding campaigns and practical guidance on the design of effective campaign messages. • Deliberative information processing contributes to the superiority of verbal emotion over visual emotion in online charity crowdfunding campaigns. • Visual emotions do not directly affect the charity campaign success. • Verbal sadness has a negative association with the charity campaign success. • Consistency between visual and verbal modalities helps mitigate the failure of online charity crowdfunding campaigns.