Self-signalling and prosocial behavior: A cause marketing experiment

摘要

According to self-perception theory in psychology, an individual can take the perspective of an outside observer and learn about herself by reflecting on her own actions. Self-signalling arises when the individual can influence her own self-beliefs through her actions and thus manipulate her ego utility. The article tesst self-signalling and crowding out in two large scale controlled field experiments. It also examines compatibility between self-image motivation and extrinsic financial incentives to behave prosocially. The experiments were conducted in a large Chinese city in collaboration with one of the world's largest mobile carriers. The subjects were randomly chosen from a population of mobile subscribers who own a smart phone and close to a movie theatre. Each subject was randomly assigned to one of several promotional campaigns for a movie ticket and was then contacted via short message service with the offer. A set of subjects were provided pure discounts that were off the regular price of a ticket. The second set of subjects received an offer of donations of a predetermined magnitude to a specific charity that would be made in conjunction with each ticket purchased. The third group of people consisted of a combination of a discount and a charitable donation. The subject's purchase decision was observed. In the second experiment, a follow-up survey was conducted with a set of subjects 24 hours after the promotional experiments. Results showed that in the absence of a donation, discounts increase demand. When discounts and donations were combined, it was found that non-monotonicity is consistent with self-signaling theory. For relatively small donations, discounts increased demand. However, for even moderate-sized donations, the nonmonotonic effect of discounts on ticket sales, which is consistent with a dampening of the self-signal. (73 refs.)