Influence of Narrative Strategies on Fundraising Outcome: An Exploratory Study of Online Medical Crowdfunding

Online medical crowdfunding (OMC) has attracted massive attention and participation in China. Despite its goal to lift the financial burden caused by expensive medical expenditure, little has been done to evaluate its impact on healthcare inequality. We examine the social consequences of OMC based on a large random sample extracted from one of the most widely-used OMC platforms in China. Our analysis shows that a disproportionally high percentage of fundraising campaigns are launched for patients with low socioeconomic status suffering from various illnesses, including many rare diseases. These findings suggest that OMC plays a positive role in providing an alternative channel for disadvantaged patients under the current health insurance system. We further examine whether and the extent to which the narrative style of solicitation text—fundraising campaign description—influences fundraising outcomes using natural language processing (NLP). The results show that expressions conveying optimism tend to result in a higher completion ratio, whereas descriptions engaging in moral mobilization or focusing on financial burden tend to have a negative impact on fundraising outcomes.