Traditional poverty aid programs often overemphasize beneficiaries' disadvantaged status, inadvertently reinforcing dependency and weakening their willingness to pursue self-reliant development. This study systematically investigates how different aid narrative frames—poverty-status framing versus growth-development framing—influence recipients' poverty alleviation behaviors, and further examines the mediating role of perceived poverty stigma. Study 1 employed a natural grouping design (N = 361) to compare participants in registration-based poverty relief projects, skill-training programs, and non-participant groups. Results showed that skill-training narratives, consistent with a growth-development frame, significantly enhanced poverty alleviation behaviors through reducing their perceived stigma. Study 2 (N = 144) directly manipulated narrative framing and found that individuals exposed to growth-development narratives reported higher willingness to engage in poverty alleviation activities and lower stigma perceptions compared with both poverty-status and control groups. Mediation analyses confirmed that perceived poverty stigma fully explained the positive effect of growth-development framing. Study 3 (N = 112) simulated real aid program scenarios and employed a behavioral task to measure poverty alleviation behaviors. Again, the growth-development frame promoted higher poverty alleviation behaviors, compared with the poverty-status frame. Bootstrap analyses verified the mediating role of poverty stigma.
Taken together, consistent evidence demonstrates that narrative framing is a critical psychological context shaping beneficiaries' self-perceptions and behavioral preferences. Specifically, poverty-status framing tends to reinforce stigmatized identities, increasing shame and self-devaluation, thereby undermining self-efficacy and willingness to pursue poverty alleviation. In contrast, growth-development framing emphasizes potential, agency, and future possibilities, reducing stigma perceptions, strengthening confidence, and fostering proactive intentions. These findings integrate stigma and framing theory with the poverty alleviation domain, extending the application of framing effects to the intersection of social policy and psychology. Practically, the results highlight the importance of language in aid program design: low-cost adjustments in narratives can serve as effective "light-touch" interventions to cultivate internal motivation and support sustainable rural revitalization.