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

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.