Persuading Teammates to Give: Systematic versus Heuristic Cues for Soliciting Loans

Dual processing theories in psychology suggest that people process persuasive requests by assessing the quality of arguments (systematic processing) or by relying on heuristic rules (heuristic processing). However, the factors that act as systematic and heuristic processing cues and affect the success of persuasion have not been adequately described in social lending contexts. This research examines the effectiveness of systematic and heuristic cues in persuasive requests in Kiva lending teams intended to convince members to donate. An analysis of 88,596 requests exchanged in 1,610 teams shows that certain heuristic processing cues (e.g.,liking between requesters and potential lenders, advocates low authority in their teams and the importance of the team to the lender) strongly predicted whether lenders would contribute to a loan request. In contrast, cues that required systematic processing are less influential. We also found that behavioral cues are more important than verbal ones. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our work.