Which Reward Should I Choose? Preliminary Evidence for the Middle-Option Bias in Reward-Based Crowdfunding

Abstract

Crowdfunding has become an important research area, but we know little about how rewards influence fundraising success. This research-in-progress studies reward-based crowdfunding through a behavioral-economics lens. We draw on dual-process theory and provide preliminary evidence for the middle-option bias in crowdfunding. Two empirical studies in a simple, controlled environment confirm the significance of the middle-option bias, both for varying numbers of donation options and for varying price ranges. Since our findings suggest that the positioning of rewards in a menu of rewards can influence support behavior and how much money project creators collect, they can inform the design of crowdfunding projects. Our future research will develop a mock crowdfunding website to study the middle-option bias in a more realistic environment.