Doctoral Dissertation in Economics: The Negative Image Effect of Incentivizing Prosocial Behavior

经济学博士论文：激励亲社会行为的负面形象效应

• 批准号: 1159032
• 负责人: Douglas Bernheim
• 金额: $ 2.09万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-04-01 至 2014-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1159032&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Economics; Negative; Image

This award funds doctoral dissertation research in Economics that uses controlled decision-making experiments to determine whether and why financial incentives for volunteering sometimes result in reduced volunteer effort.Previous researchers have argued that receiving a financial incentive for volunteering or donations could mar one?s social image. If this is the case,then offering an incentive might actually reduce prosocial volunteer effort; the financial incentive means that volunteering no longer convinces society that you are a generous person. This idea has been incorporated into behavioral theories, but these theories are not are not able to forecast when one may expect incentives to encourage prosocial behavior. Similarly, no study has been able to precisely identify the negative image effect. In carefully testing the mechanisms involved in volunteer behavior, these laboratory experiments answer these questions. Study 1 implements a novel treatment that identifies and measures the negative image effect as well as other main effects. Study 2 tests a new theory that can explain the results of past research in a straightforward way. The associated negative image effect of incentivizing volunteer behavior may well be smaller for someone with an established, as opposed to unestablished, good volunteer reputation, because those with established reputations are already known to volunteer for good, not greedy, reasons. Study 3 investigates the role of diminishing returns to incentives in the context of volunteer behavior. In achieving identification of the negative image effect as well as proposing and testing novel mechanisms that may influence prosocial behavior, the results of this research provide new insight into prosocial behavior. The laboratory stands as an ideal tool for acquiring these results, since the observability of one's actions and associated reputation as well as the level of volunteer behavior and offered incentives can all be tightly controlled and measured. Broader Impacts: In addition to contributing to interdisciplinary research in economics, psychology, and decision science, these experimental results will provide valuable information to government and nonprofit organizations about the encouragement of volunteer behavior. Expected follow-up field studies will engender partnerships between academia and non-profit or government organizations.

该奖项资助经济学博士论文研究，该研究使用受控决策实验来确定志愿服务的经济激励是否以及为什么有时会导致志愿者努力减少。以前的研究人员认为，接受志愿服务或捐赠的经济激励可能会破坏一个人？的社会形象。 如果是这样的话，那么提供激励实际上可能会减少亲社会的志愿者努力;经济激励意味着志愿服务不再让社会相信你是一个慷慨的人。 这个想法已经被纳入行为理论，但这些理论不能预测什么时候可以预期激励措施来鼓励亲社会行为。同样，没有研究能够精确地识别负面形象效应。在仔细测试志愿者行为的机制时，这些实验室实验回答了这些问题。 研究1实施了一种新的治疗方法，识别和测量负面形象效应以及其他主要效应。 研究2测试了一个新的理论，可以直接解释过去的研究结果。 激励志愿者行为的相关负面形象效应对于那些拥有良好志愿者声誉的人来说可能要小一些，因为那些拥有良好声誉的人已经知道志愿者是出于良好而不是贪婪的原因。 研究3探讨了志愿者行为背景下激励报酬递减的作用。在识别负面形象效应以及提出和测试可能影响亲社会行为的新机制方面，本研究的结果为亲社会行为提供了新的见解。 实验室是获得这些结果的理想工具，因为一个人的行为和相关声誉的可观察性以及志愿者行为的水平和提供的激励都可以被严格控制和测量。 更广泛的影响：除了有助于经济学，心理学和决策科学的跨学科研究外，这些实验结果还将为政府和非营利组织提供有关鼓励志愿者行为的宝贵信息。 预期的后续实地研究将在学术界和非营利组织或政府组织之间建立伙伴关系。