We analyzed 19,898 Kickstarter campaigns and found that talking about politics hurts fundraising

Divisive political opinions are everywhere these days, but entrepreneurs would be wise to bite their tongue.

In recent analysis of 19,898 Kickstarter campaignswe found that start-up companies expressing political views attracted less funding than those that remained apolitical.

How professors Who test enterprisewe wanted to understand the relationship between political expression and crowdfunding success. So we looked at thousands of campaigns launched over two years.

We searched the campaigns for subtle expressions of conservative values ​​- “We continue to remember that all lives matter, regardless of skin color or religion, and we hope I have clarified my idea of ​​a sandwich shop,” to name just one example – and more overt ones such as like “Drain the Swamp and Defend MAGA Country.

We did the same with subtle liberal perspectives – like “I’m fed up and annoyed with the lack of equality and diversity in the media” – and overt ones like “I believe that art matters + and magic is real. Also: Black Lives Matter.”

Ultimately, we found that each percentage point augment in political speeches was associated with a 9% decline in fundraising for conservatives and a 17% decline for liberals.

Our theory, which our findings support, is that people do not expect someone to share political beliefs in a business context. When entrepreneurs violate these expectations, people perceive them as unprofessional, which ultimately hurts their crowdfunding performance.

Reaction to political speech does not seem to affect everyone equally. Third party endorsement campaigns such as “A design we loveBadge, we discovered, were less punished. Placing photos or videos on the campaign page also appears to reduce the negative effect. The entrepreneur’s previous successful experiences proved successful in leaning toward a conservative but not liberal voice.

Why it matters

How entrepreneurs become more and more talk about politicsthey should understand the potential costs of speaking authentically. Our research shows that funders expect entrepreneurs to be apolitical in crowdfunding and penalize those who express their political values. While we looked specifically at Kickstarter campaigns, the implications for existing companies that are also looking for investment are obvious.

To be fair, our work also found evidence that entrepreneurs who appear more credible – for example, through third-party support or employ of multimedia – are less likely to be penalized for political speech. Overall, however, entrepreneurs should at least consider remaining mute on political issues in their financial offers to ensure that they do not harm their chances.

What is still unknown

Although we focused on the impact of entrepreneurs’ political speeches, a natural follow-up question is whether donors’ political views influence whether they invest in a project. Researchers know that conservatives and liberals approach decision-making completely different. Therefore, we believe it is critical that researchers address this question next. This type of research will begin to provide a more holistic picture of how political beliefs influence crowdfunding.

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