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The double dividend of social information in charitable giving: Evidence from a framed field experiment

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  • Feine, Gregor
  • Groh, Elke D.
  • von Loessl, Victor
  • Wetzel, Heike

Abstract

Signaling, as well as receiving social information on charitable giving, is known to stimulate individuals’ donation. In this respect, we conduct a framed field experiment to analyze the interplay between signaling or receiving social information and donors’ inherent level of altruism. Intuitively, respondents with a high level of altruism donate significantly more than those with a lower level. In addition, we find that having the chance to set a positive example as well as being exposed to such enhances charitable giving, whereas the opportunity of image signaling alone does not. Furthermore, setting a positive example yields the highest donation rate among respondents with a high level of altruism, while being exposed to such yields the highest donation rate among respondents with a low level of altruism. The effect on overall donations by confronting participants with a social descriptive norm (i.e., previous donations) is significantly stronger for those with a low level of altruism, leading to an alignment of the donations by both types of donors. These heterogeneous results suggest that adapting appeals to potential donors’ inherent levels of altruism has the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of charitable campaigns.

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  • Feine, Gregor & Groh, Elke D. & von Loessl, Victor & Wetzel, Heike, 2023. "The double dividend of social information in charitable giving: Evidence from a framed field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:103:y:2023:i:c:s2214804323000174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2023.101991
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Altruism; Charitable giving; Framed field experiment; Social information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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