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Signaling Virtue: Charitable Behavior Under Consumer Elective Pricing

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  • Minah H. Jung

    (Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, New York 10012)

  • Leif D. Nelson

    (Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720)

  • Uri Gneezy

    (School of Business, Sichuan University, 610064 Sichuan, China)

  • Ayelet Gneezy

    (Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093)

Abstract

Two field experiments examined generosity under consumer elective pricing. In shared social responsibility (SSR), consumers choose how much to pay, knowing that a percentage of their payment goes to support a charitable cause. Replicating past research, consumers in our experiments were sensitive to the presence of charitable giving, paying more when a portion of their payment went to charity. Notably, however, they were largely insensitive to the percentage of payment allocated to charity—customers paid little more when 99% of the payment went to charity than when only 1% went to charity. Neither self-selection nor social pressure fully explained higher payments under SSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Minah H. Jung & Leif D. Nelson & Uri Gneezy & Ayelet Gneezy, 2017. "Signaling Virtue: Charitable Behavior Under Consumer Elective Pricing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(2), pages 187-194, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:36:y:2017:i:2:p:187-194
    DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2016.1018
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Katharina Dowling & Daniel Guhl & Daniel Klapper & Martin Spann & Lucas Stich & Narine Yegoryan, 2020. "Behavioral biases in marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 449-477, May.
    4. Shijie Lu & Dai Yao & Xingyu Chen & Rajdeep Grewal, 2021. "Do Larger Audiences Generate Greater Revenues Under Pay What You Want? Evidence from a Live Streaming Platform," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(5), pages 964-984, September.
    5. Roy, Rajat & Das, Gopal, 2022. "The role of contextual factors in increasing Pay-What-You-Want payments: Evidence from field experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1540-1552.
    6. Schwartz, Daniel & Keenan, Elizabeth A. & Imas, Alex & Gneezy, Ayelet, 2021. "Opting-in to prosocial incentives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 132-141.
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    9. Preeti Narwal & J. K. Nayak & Shivam Rai, 2022. "Assessing Customers' Moral Disengagement from Reciprocity Concerns in Participative Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 537-554, June.
    10. Casarico, Alessandra & Tonin, Mirco, 2018. "Pay-What-You-Want to Support Independent Information: A Field Experiment on Motivation," IZA Discussion Papers 11366, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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