Anonymity, nonverbal communication and prosociality in digitized interactions: An experiment on charitable giving

IF 2.5 2区经济学 Q2 ECONOMICS

Journal of Economic Psychology Pub Date : 2024-10-05 DOI:10.1016/j.joep.2024.102769

Adam Zylbersztejn , Zakaria Babutsidze , Nobuyuki Hanaki , Marie-Sophie Roul

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

We empirically examine the value of modern digital communication tools for inducing prosocial behavior. In our online experiment (

N = 594

), 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.

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数字化互动中的匿名性、非语言交流和亲社会性：慈善捐赠实验

我们通过实验研究了现代数字通信工具在诱导亲社会行为方面的价值。在我们的在线实验（N=594）中，慈善机构成员通过不同的数字通信渠道向潜在捐赠者发送标准化信息，这些渠道的非语言内容（文字条件下的书面信息与音频条件下的语音记录与视频条件下的视频录像）各不相同。我们发现，最初的猜想得到了部分支持，即一旦陌生人对前者的匿名性降低，个人对陌生人的亲社会性就会增强。与基线文本条件相比，我们的音频处理使平均捐赠额显著大幅增加（近 40%）。然而，在最富裕的视频条件下观察到的效果只有音频条件下效果的一半，而且其中的捐款与其他条件下的捐款没有统计学差异。我们排除了这些处理效果源于感知机制的可能性，即亲社会性的变化是由刺激中慈善成员的感知差异驱动的，这表明处理效果捕捉到了在数字世界中减少匿名性对促进亲社会性的内在价值。

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来源期刊

Journal of Economic Psychology Multiple-

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

31.40%

发文量

审稿时长

63 days

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.