Gender differences evaluation in charity campaigns perception by measuring neurophysiological signals and behavioural data

Nowadays it has clearly understood that emotions play an important role in the success ofcommercial advertising. Particularly, it has been observed as advertising campaigns of non-profitorganizations need to create an emotional appeal in people, in order to generate a positive behavioralresponse. The charity sector has grown tremendously in the last decades and with it the need to createimproved specific marketing strategies. The aim of the present paper is to show how the variation of theEEG frontal cortical asymmetry is related to the general appreciation perceived during the observationof a charity campaign, focusing on gender differences. With the use of neurophysiological and traditionalmeasures, the responses of participants are evaluated through an electroencephalographic (EEG) indexof approach or withdrawal motivation based on the frontal alpha asymmetry, called ApproachWithdrawal Index (AW), and an autonomic index deriving from the combination of the heart rate (HR)and the galvanic skin response (GSR) activity, called Emotional Index (EI), considered an indicator ofthe emotional involvement. An interview at the end of each experience reveals the behavioral data.Results show higher values for women than men of both neurophysiological indexes: for the EI withp=0,037 and for the AW index with p=0,035. The declared answers of participants at the end of thecampaign demonstrate that the declared liking of women is statistically significantly higher than thedeclared liking of men (p=0,008). Finally, there is a correlation between the AW and the declared likingwith p=0,007. Results suggest the presence of gender differences in the cognitive and emotionalresponses to emotion appealing charity advertisements.