{"title":"Anonymity, nonverbal communication and prosociality in digitized interactions: An experiment on charitable giving","authors":"Adam Zylbersztejn , Zakaria Babutsidze , Nobuyuki Hanaki , Marie-Sophie Roul","doi":"10.1016/j.joep.2024.102769","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We empirically examine the value of modern digital communication tools for inducing prosocial behavior. In our online experiment (<span><math><mrow><mi>N</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>594</mn></mrow></math></span>), charity members transmit a standardized message to potential donors through alternative digital communication channels varying the amount of nonverbal content (written message in the baseline Text condition vs. voice recording in Audio vs. video-recorded discourse in Video). We find partial support for the initial conjecture that individuals get more prosocial towards strangers once the latter become less anonymous to the former. Compared to the baseline Text condition, our Audio treatment induces a significant and substantial (nearly 40%) increase in the average donation. However, the effect observed in the richest Video condition has only half the magnitude of the one in Audio and donations made therein are not statistically different to those in the remaining conditions. We rule out the possibility that these treatment effects stem from perceptual mechanisms by which the changes in prosociality are driven by the differences in the perception of charity members in the stimuli, suggesting that the treatment effects capture the intrinsic value of reducing anonymity for promoting prosociality in the digital world.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48318,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Psychology","volume":"105 ","pages":"Article 102769"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Economic Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167487024000771","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We empirically examine the value of modern digital communication tools for inducing prosocial behavior. In our online experiment (), charity members transmit a standardized message to potential donors through alternative digital communication channels varying the amount of nonverbal content (written message in the baseline Text condition vs. voice recording in Audio vs. video-recorded discourse in Video). We find partial support for the initial conjecture that individuals get more prosocial towards strangers once the latter become less anonymous to the former. Compared to the baseline Text condition, our Audio treatment induces a significant and substantial (nearly 40%) increase in the average donation. However, the effect observed in the richest Video condition has only half the magnitude of the one in Audio and donations made therein are not statistically different to those in the remaining conditions. We rule out the possibility that these treatment effects stem from perceptual mechanisms by which the changes in prosociality are driven by the differences in the perception of charity members in the stimuli, suggesting that the treatment effects capture the intrinsic value of reducing anonymity for promoting prosociality in the digital world.
期刊介绍：
The Journal aims to present research that will improve understanding of behavioral, in particular psychological, aspects of economic phenomena and processes. The Journal seeks to be a channel for the increased interest in using behavioral science methods for the study of economic behavior, and so to contribute to better solutions of societal problems, by stimulating new approaches and new theorizing about economic affairs. Economic psychology as a discipline studies the psychological mechanisms that underlie economic behavior. It deals with preferences, judgments, choices, economic interaction, and factors influencing these, as well as the consequences of judgements and decisions for economic processes and phenomena. This includes the impact of economic institutions upon human behavior and well-being. Studies in economic psychology may relate to different levels of aggregation, from the household and the individual consumer to the macro level of whole nations. Economic behavior in connection with inflation, unemployment, taxation, economic development, as well as consumer information and economic behavior in the market place are thus among the fields of interest. The journal also encourages submissions dealing with social interaction in economic contexts, like bargaining, negotiation, or group decision-making. The Journal of Economic Psychology contains: (a) novel reports of empirical (including: experimental) research on economic behavior; (b) replications studies; (c) assessments of the state of the art in economic psychology; (d) articles providing a theoretical perspective or a frame of reference for the study of economic behavior; (e) articles explaining the implications of theoretical developments for practical applications; (f) book reviews; (g) announcements of meetings, conferences and seminars.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
