Thursday, March 8, 2018

Schulz, Thiemann, and Thöni (2016) on Nudging Generosity

Jonathan F. Schulz, Petra Thiemann, and Christian Thöni, “Nudging Generosity: Choice Architecture and Cognitive Factors in Charitable Giving,” USC-INET Research Paper No. 16-26, September 13, 2016.

• The subjects (n=869) are students at a Swiss university, who are asked at the end of a pen-and-paper study if they would like to donate to charity some of any winnings they make from the experiment.

• In one treatment, the students who indicate that they want to donate to charity must write in a charity name in a blank space. In the alternative treatment, the students are given a list of five well-known charities which they can choose among, along with a blank space in case they want to indicate another charity.

The one-line summary of the results is that providing a short list of recommended charities, along with a “choose your own” option, doubles the number of donors relative to just having the “choose your own” option.

• The average donation per donor is unchanged, so the “list” treatment also doubles total contributions. Most donations in the "list" treatment go to listed charities; other charities are "crowded out" by not being listed.

• Females donate significantly more than males.


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