‘Volunteers are incompetent’: how the stereotype of incompetence impacts new volunteer’s participation

The stereotype that 'volunteers are incompetent' is widespread, but we don't know if it implicitly affects the behaviours of new volunteers. Utilizing a large three-wave lagged survey of 2,089 Chinese volunteers and a manipulation experiment with 170 subjects, we reveal a causal path from the stereotype of incompetence to perceived overqualification to less volunteer participation. In addition, the negative impact of the stereotype weakens when volunteering task significance is high. The study creatively links the literature on stereotyping and volunteering, proposes a new analytical framework, and provides insights on retaining new volunteers.