Self-Concept Priming and Message Framing As Strategies for Improving Individuals’ Compliance: A Case Study of Bicultural Taxpayers’ Tip Reporting

Abstract

This study investigates the efficacy of two strategies, active self-concept priming and message framing, designed to encourage standard-compliant behavior. We prime 82 bicultural U.S. taxpayers from a collectivist culture through informational videos to activate either an individualist or collectivist self-concept. The message is framed to match (versus not match) the primed self-concept. Results reveal an ordinal interaction where participants primed with a collectivist self-concept have higher tax compliance than those primed with an individualist self-concept, and the highest compliance occurs when the message has a relational focus (i.e., collectivist prime match) compared to a self-focus (i.e., individualist prime match). Supplemental analysis suggests that raising the salience of the collectivist-self over the individualist-self indirectly affects taxpayers’ intentions to comply through the mediator of taxpayers’ attitudes. The findings highlight the potential of behavioral priming as a low-cost strategy for boosting tax revenues that fund services that benefit the public interest at large. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.