When positive ends tarnish the means: The morality of nonprofit more than of for-profit organizations is tainted by the use of compliance techniques

Previous research has shown that prosocial behavior that is driven by selfish intentions is evaluated negatively. In the present research, we focus on people's perceptions of action that does not benefit the actor but leads to societal benefit. Concretely, two studies examined the extent to which nonprofit (compared to for-profit) organizations are perceived as less moral when they use compliance techniques to raise donations. We reasoned and found that an ethical nonprofit organization that uses compliance techniques deviates from people's expectations of how such organizations typically behave, which in turn lowers its perceived morality. In contrast, using a compliance technique is less deviant from people's expectation of how a for-profit organization behaves, and accordingly, the perceived morality of the for-profit organization is less likely to be diminished. Thus, paradoxically, because the ultimate ends are noble, nonprofit organizations are condemned more drastically for using a deceptive recruitment technique than are for-profit organizations. Potential consequences for fund raising tactics are discussed.