PROSOCIAL

This project will (i) systematize research on promoting prosocial behavior and create a common conceptual framework with a taxonomy of approaches to promote such behavior, and (ii) test these approaches in different application domains and investigate which approaches are generalizable or, if not, which specific factors enhance or diminish their applicability. Our results will contribute to answer an overarching question: How can we foster prosocial behavior across diverse domains and contexts? Methods: On the conceptual level, we synthesize results from various disciplines in a systematic review. Furthermore, we develop a comprehensive micro-theoretical economic model of prosocial behavior. We will not only develop the conceptual framework based on our own knowledge and existing literature, but also incorporate the knowledge and perspectives of our interdisciplinary advisory board and the real-world application experiences of our practice partners. This will ensure the connectivity and transferability of the theoretical results to the disciplinary discussions. On the empirical level, we conduct field experiments and large-scale population surveys, as these approaches have specific merits each, which are essential for answering our research questions. Where appropriate, we conduct supporting laboratory experiments or incorporate external data sets. In collaboration with our practice partners, we conduct randomized controlled trials to identify the causal effects of interventions aimed at promoting prosocial behavior in people’s everyday lives. Due to randomization into treatment and control groups, field experiments ensure a high degree of internal validity. Due to our collaboration with practice partners, the experiments are conducted in the relevant population and thus the results are directly applicable to real-world contexts. In addition, we conduct two large-scale population surveys that complement the field experiments in several ways. Survey experiments allow us to optimally study the effects across domains and contexts in a controlled environment and the same population. The consortium members are highly experienced in conducting population surveys in cooperation with survey institutes that maintain high-quality household panels. These surveys will provide rich data that will help answer the research questions and guide the field experiments. The surveys will provide information on the respondents’ past prosocial behavior, as well as factors such as attitudes, past experiences, personality traits, and situational aspects that may explain differences in prosocial behavior. In addition, we design incentivized revealed preference survey experiments to test information interventions, provide causal insights into the determinants of prosocial choices and study spillover effects. The results will also help in the design of the interventions tested in the field experiments. Furthermore, the surveys can elicit approval ratings for policy measures that promote prosocial behavior, and information or framing experiments can be used to determine how to increase support for policies that contribute to solving collective action problems. Not least, these surveys can be used to recruit potential participants for some of the field experiments, as RWI has already done on several occasions. Besides the Leibniz-institutes RWI, WZB and PIK, the consortium further consists of researchers based at renowned universities and institutes: The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law (MPI-CSL), the University of Hamburg (UHH), the Central European University (CEU), the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Universities of Oxford (OXF) and Waterloo (UW), and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).