Current Research
Work in Progress:
Inflation concerns and green product consumption: Evidence from a nationwide survey and a framed field experiment
Co-author: Lena Tonzer
Promoting green product consumption is one important element in building a sustainable society. Yet green products are usually more costly. In times of high inflation, not only budget constraints but also the fear that prices will continue to rise might dampen green product consumption and, hence, limit the effectiveness of exerted efforts to promote sustainable behaviors. To test this suggestion, we conducted a Germany-wide survey with almost 1,200 respondents, followed by a framed field experiment (N=500) to confirm causality. In the survey, respondents’ stated “green” purchasing behavior is, as to be expected, positively correlated with concerns about climate change. Yet it is also negatively correlated with concerns about future inflation and energy costs, and after controlling for observable characteristics such as income and educational level only the correlation with concerns about future prices remains significant. In the framed field experiment, participants were asked to assemble a basket of products in the online shop of a local supermarket. To incentivize that they only take products in which they are actually interested, we made clear that we would deliver these baskets to ten randomly drawn participants. Whereas sizeably relaxing the budget constraint (i.e. by 50 percent) has no impact on the share of organic products in participants’ baskets, making inflation more salient using the priming method significantly decreases the share of organic products, but only for individuals with below-median environmental attitude. This subgroup effect was already observed in the survey data and, hence, preregistered before running the field experiment.
Feeling obliged to follow: The impact of work-related identity on unethical pro-organizational behavior and the role of empowering leadership
Co-authors: Christoph Ostermair and Joschka Waibel
This study contributes to a better understanding of why people engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) by investigating a mechanism that has been overlooked so far: the mere fact of being a subordinate at the workplace. To establish a causal relationship, we conducted a two-step controlled online experiment with 615 full-time employees. Before asking participants to follow a pro-organizational but rather immoral rule, we used the so-called priming method to activate the mental concept of acting in a private or work-related environment. Our findings reveal that individuals scoring high on perceived power distance indeed engage to a greater extent in UPB after being primed on their work-related identity. Our results, however, also stress the role of leadership styles. Especially empowering leadership is likely to decrease the feeling of being obliged to follow rules blindly. Participants who were confronted with empowering messages before our priming intervention showed the reversed effect and engage in UPB to the same extent as participants in our private priming control group.
Working Papers:
A Cashless Payment Option in Face-to-Face Fundraising [Journal of Public Economics, R&R]
Co-authors: Adrian Chadi, Laszlo Goerke, and Konstantin Homolka
Cashless payments are ubiquitous, but not for all kinds of economic transactions. If people are asked to contribute to charity face-to-face, they often prefer cash. A cashless payment option (CPO) may then deter individuals from donating. To investigate such behavioral phenomena in a comprehensive manner, we first conducted a field experiment in an art exhibition, where visitors could provide financial support after taking a guided tour. As our main modification, we randomly manipulated the donation opportunity, either offering a CPO or not. We additionally implemented two pay-what-you-want (PWYW) treatment conditions (with and without CPO) by asking to compensate for the guided tour to ascertain whether the findings are specific to donations. Our results show that individuals shy away from giving by card across all treatment conditions, in stark contrast to their preferred behavior in other payment contexts. We observe neither an adverse effect of the CPO in PWYW nor in the donation scenario. Some visitors, such as frequent card users, even increased the number of donations due to the CPO. To explain this finding, we conducted a complementary survey experiment on social pressure to give in fundraising similar to our field setting. The evidence shows that a CPO makes the excuse of having no cash available less credible, thereby increasing the pressure on hesitant individuals.
Alone at Home: The Impact of Social Distancing on Norm-Consistent Behavior. IWH Discussion Papers No. 08/2021. [link]
Co-author: Joschka Waibel
Around the globe, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned daily live upside down since social distancing is probably the most effective means of containing the virus until herd immunity is reached. Social norms have been shown to be an important determinant of social distancing behaviors. By conducting two experiments and using the priming method to manipulate social isolation recollections, we study whether social distancing has in turn affected norms of prosociality and norm compliance. The normative expectations of what behaviors others would approve or disapprove in our experimental setting did not change. Looking at actual behavior, however, we find that persistent social distancing indeed causes a decline in prosociality ―even after the relaxation of social distancing rules and in times of optimism. At the same time, our results contain some good news since subjects seem still to care for norms and become more prosocial once again after we draw their attention to the empirical norm of how others have previously behaved in a similar situation.
For a summary of our article, see our LSE COVID-19 blog post, or oekonomenstimme.org (in German).
Press coverage (all in German): Berliner Zeitung, n-tv.de. Further articles in Magdeburger Volksstimme (05.08.2021), Schweriner Volkszeitung (28.06.2021), Leipziger Zeitung and Hamburger Abendblatt (25.06.2021), Deutschlandfunk Nova (24.06.2021). Short report in „Deffner & Zschäpitz: Wirtschaftspodcast von WELT“ (29.06.2021).