Proximal language predicts crowdfunding success: Behavioral and experimental evidence

Online crowdfunding has become an important venue for innovating entrepreneurs, enabling them to bypass traditional funding sources and directly pitch to the masses. And yet, most crowdfunding campaigns fail to reach their funding goals. In this paper, I examined the role of language in crowdfunding success by investigating a widely used, but understudied, linguistic feature: proximal language. I conducted two studies that combined behavioral and experimental evidence to investigate how and why proximal language is persuasive. Using behavior data from a sample of 459 online crowdfunding campaigns on a technological innovation, Study 1 found that campaigns using more proximal language, such as collective-referencing we-pronouns, audience-orienting you-pronouns, and concrete words, were more likely to succeed. By contrast, campaigns using more distant terms, such as self-referencing I-pronouns, were less likely to succeed. Building upon these results, Study 2 reported a multi-message, mixed-design experiment (N = 177) to examine the causal mechanism underlying the suasory effects of proximal language. The results showed that proximal (vs. distant) language reduced psychological distance, which enhanced perceived message quality and eventually led to stronger financing intentions. Implications for persuasion and entrepreneurial practice are discussed.