December 2025
This deck contains the findings from a new, expanded experiment testing messengers for overseas aid and development. Following on from the 2020 work, ‘Who can communicate international development?’, this experiment expands the field of messengers from aid experts, frontline workers, volunteers, campaigners, military, philanthropists and others to include ‘aid-adjacent’ and ‘non-aid-adjacent’ messengers, namely social media influencers and media personalities who have not yet expressed views about overseas aid. Like the 2020 test, the experiment tests messengers for a range of traits, like warmth and competence, while also testing ‘transferability’ from messengers’ current core issues to those related to aid, development, global poverty reduction, etc. The experiment also focused on key audiences for DEL partners, including the marginally engaged, Gen Z, and parents. To access the raw data and datatable, including sociodemographic splits, click here.
To access the appendix with full list of messengers tested, including descriptions and images, click here.
