Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

From TEARs to AID: the effects of emotional tears in images of refugees on helping through crowdfunding actions

Project description

Tears trigger helping behaviour

People are usually more willing to help those who cry. The question is why and what kind of help tears activate. The EU-funded TEARAID project will try to solve this question. It will examine the effects of tears on the promotion of two types of prosocial behaviour: autonomy- and dependency-oriented help. It will also test the role of underlying mechanisms like perceived humanness of the tearful person and self-transcendent emotions felt in response to tears, such as compassion. Photos and videos of refugees used in news stories and social campaigns by NGOs will be used to compare people’s reactions to tearful and non-tearful refugees. The findings will assist in improving measures of prosocial behaviour and creating joint initiatives with the crowdfunding industry.

Objective

TEARAID will study the effects of emotional tears on providing aid to members of disadvantaged groups, measured by means of research-embedded crowdfunding campaigns. The proposed project will examine the effects of tears on the promotion of actual prosocial behavior (i.e. both autonomy- and dependency-oriented help), providing an innovative tool for its measurement and creating synergies between research in social sciences and crowdfunding industry. Next, TEARAID will respond to why these effects occur, i.e. test the role of underlying mechanisms, such as perceived humanness of the tearful person, and self-transcendent emotions felt in response to tears, such as compassion and elevation. Furthermore, the project will test when these effects occur, i.e. identify factors that strengthen or weaken them, including the situation in which a person is shedding tears (whether being comforted by another person or not), as well as gender. To address above-mentioned challenges, TEARAID will analyze host society members’ responses toTEAR-AID will examine the effects of emotional tears on the promotion of prosocial behavior (e.g. providing humanitarian aid), as well as respond to why (i.e. test the underlying mechanisms) and when these effects occur (i.e. identify factors that strengthen or weaken them). TEAR-AID will use real-life images (photographs and videos) of refugees used in news stories and social campaigns by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as laboratory standardized photographs to test people’s reactions including actual prosocial behavior (contribution to real crowdfunding initiatives) in response to tearful and non-tearful refugees. Importantly, TEAR-AID will provide an innovative tool for measuring prosocial behavior, creating joint initiatives with crowdfunding industry. In general, the project will contribute valuable knowledge regarding the effects images of tearful refugees in mass media have on prosocial behavior among host society members.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 175 572,48
Address
HEIDELBERGLAAN 8
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands

See on map

Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 175 572,48
My booklet 0 0