Success Factors of Online Petitions: Evidence from Change.org

Online petitions have emerged to become a powerful tool for the public to make positive impact on the society. This paper investigates what factors in the text content of online petitions influence their chance of success. Specifically, we examine moral, emotional, and cognitive elements in the petition language and identify their role in making online petitions successful. From the analysis of 12,808 online petitions from Change.org, we found that petitions containing positive emotions are more likely to be successful. In contrast to conventional beliefs, petitions containing heavier moral and cognitive elements are less likely to be successful. The findings have important implications to both petition websites and petitioners.