Research Papers in Economics, Department of Economics, Stockholm University
No 2011:28:
Do Watching Eyes Affect Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Field Experiment
Mathias Ekström ()
Abstract: The presence of implicit observation cues, such as picture
of eyes, has been shown to increase generosity in dictator games, and
cooperative behavior in field settings. I combine these approaches, by
testing if a picture of watching eyes affects unconditional giving in a
natural environment, where the recipient is a charity organization. Taken
together, this study reduces the influence of three potential confounding
factors in previous experiments: (i) experimenter demand effects, (ii) that
the facial cue reminds subjects of a human counterpart, and (iii) a social
multiplier effect. Specifically, the paper reports results from an
experiment, conducted in a Swedish supermarket chain, where customers face
a naturally occurring decision problem. People who recycle cans and bottles
have to choose whether to keep the recycled amount or donate it to a
charity organization. By posting a picture of human eyes on recycling
machines, I am able to test whether this causes an increase in donations to
the charity. Based on a sample covering a 12-day period, 38 stores and
16775 individual choices, I find no general effect. However, when
controlling for store and day fixed effects, and using a proxy for store
attendance, the picture of eyes increased donated amount by 30 percent
during days when relatively few other people visited the store. This result
gives further support to the conclusion that subtle social cues can invoke
reputation concerns in humans, although the relatively small effect
suggests that previous estimates could be biased upward, or at least that
the influence of observational cues is context dependent.
Keywords: Altruism; Cues; Reputation; Field Experiment; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: A13; C93; D03; D64; (follow links to similar papers)
18 pages, November 29, 2011
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