TY - JOUR

T1 - From social information to social norms

T2 - Evidence from two experiments on donation behaviour

AU - Goeschl, Timo

AU - Kettner, Sara Elisa

AU - Lohse, Johannes

AU - Schwieren, Christiane

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2018/12

Y1 - 2018/12

N2 - While preferences for conformity are commonly seen as an important driver of pro-social behaviour, only a small set of previous studies has explicitly tested the behavioural mechanisms underlying this proposition. In this paper, we report on two interconnected experimental studies that jointly provide a more thorough and robust understanding of a causal mechanism that links social information (i.e., information about the generosity of others) to donations via changing the perception of a descriptive social norm. In a modified dictator game, Experiment 1 re-investigates this mechanism adding further robustness to prior results by eliciting choices from a non-student sample and by implementing an additional treatment that controls for potential anchoring effects implied by the methods used in previous investigations. Experiment 2 adds further robustness by investigating the link between social information, (descriptive) norm perception and giving at the individual, rather than the group average, level. We find that an exogenous variation of social information influences beliefs about others’ contributions (descriptive social norm) and, through this channel, actual giving. An exploratory analysis indicates that this causal relationship is differently pronounced among the two sexes. We rule out anchoring effects as a plausible confound in previous investigations. The key findings carry over to the individual level.

AB - While preferences for conformity are commonly seen as an important driver of pro-social behaviour, only a small set of previous studies has explicitly tested the behavioural mechanisms underlying this proposition. In this paper, we report on two interconnected experimental studies that jointly provide a more thorough and robust understanding of a causal mechanism that links social information (i.e., information about the generosity of others) to donations via changing the perception of a descriptive social norm. In a modified dictator game, Experiment 1 re-investigates this mechanism adding further robustness to prior results by eliciting choices from a non-student sample and by implementing an additional treatment that controls for potential anchoring effects implied by the methods used in previous investigations. Experiment 2 adds further robustness by investigating the link between social information, (descriptive) norm perception and giving at the individual, rather than the group average, level. We find that an exogenous variation of social information influences beliefs about others’ contributions (descriptive social norm) and, through this channel, actual giving. An exploratory analysis indicates that this causal relationship is differently pronounced among the two sexes. We rule out anchoring effects as a plausible confound in previous investigations. The key findings carry over to the individual level.

KW - Altruism

KW - Donations

KW - Experiment

KW - Social information

KW - Social norms

KW - Economics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056266517&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/g9040091

DO - 10.3390/g9040091

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85056266517

VL - 9

JO - Games

JF - Games

SN - 2073-4336

IS - 4

M1 - 91

ER -