Abstract
A field experiment conducted in a church community tested the counterintuitive notion that individuals were more likely to respond affirmatively to donation requests made through email than face to face. According to social identity perspectives of computer-mediated communication, email increases the salience of group attributes and reduces cognitive perceptions of interpersonal differences. These processes depersonalize individuals who then become more sensitive to group norms and expectations. Analyses demonstrated that the predicted positive interaction was moderated by the degree of in-group identification, such that low identifiers were more likely to respond to email calls when the salience of social identity was heightened.
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