TY - JOUR A1 - Schwardmann, Peter A1 - van der Weele, Joël J. A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Self-Persuasion: Evidence From Field Experiments at International Debating Competitions JF - American Economic Review N2 - Laboratory evidence shows that when people have to argue for a given position, they persuade themselves about the position's factual and moral superiority. Such self-persuasion limits the potential of communication to resolve conflict and reduce polarization. We test for this phenomenon in a field setting, at international debating competitions that randomly assign experienced and motivated debaters to argue one side of a topical motion. We find self-persuasion in factual beliefs and confidence in one's position. Effect sizes are smaller than in the laboratory, but robust to a one-hour exchange of arguments and a tenfold increase in incentives for accuracy. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200372 VL - 112 IS - 4 SP - 1118 EP - 1146 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tripodi, Egon A1 - Meyer, Christian J. T1 - Image concerns in pledges to give blood: Evidence from a field experiment JF - Journal of Economic Psychology N2 - We use a field experiment to study how social image concerns affect a commonly used strategy to attract new donors: pledges to engage in a charitable activity. While waiting for their appointment, visitors to a local government office are offered sign-ups for blood donations in a crowded waiting room. We randomly vary the visibility of the pledge to donate and the organization for which blood donations are solicited (charitable vs. commercial). Our setting provides natural variation in who observes the pledge. We do not find that visibility increases pledges to donate. Exploring heterogeneity in treatment effects, we find that visibility increases pledges when participants are observed by friends or family. Almost all subjects renege on their pledge. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2021.102434 VL - 87 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goette, Lorenz A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Social Influence in Prosocial Behavior: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment JF - Journal of the European Economic Association N2 - We propose a novel experiment that prevents social learning, thus allowing us to disentangle the underlying mechanisms of social influence. Subjects observe their peer’s incentives, but not their behavior. We find evidence of conformity: when individuals believe that incentives make others contribute more, they also increase their contributions. Conformity is driven by individuals who feel socially close to their peer. However, when incentives are not expected to raise their peer’s contributions, participants reduce their own contributions. Our data is consistent with an erosion of norm-adherence when prosocial behavior of the social reference is driven by extrinsic motives, and cannot be explained by incentive inequality or altruistic crowding out. These findings show scope for social influence in settings with limited observability and offer insights into the mediators of conformity. KW - Prosocial behavior, social influence, online experiment. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvaa054 VL - 19 IS - 4 SP - 2373 EP - 2398 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Belot, Michèle A1 - Syngjoo, Choi A1 - Tripodi, Egon A1 - Jamison, Julian C. A1 - Papageorge, Nicolas W. A1 - van den Broek-Altenburg, Eline T1 - Unequal Consequences of Covid 19: representative evidence from six countries JF - Review of Economics of the Household N2 - Covid-19 and the measures taken to contain it have led to unprecedented constraints on work and leisure activities, across the world. This paper uses nationally representative surveys to document how people of different ages and incomes have been affected in the early phase of the pandemic. The data was collected in six countries (China, South Korea, Japan, Italy, UK, and US) in the third week of April 2020. First, we document changes in job circumstances and social activities. Second, we document self-reported negative and positive consequences of the crisis on well-being. We find that young people have experienced more drastic changes to their life and have been most affected economically and psychologically. There is less of a systematic pattern across income groups. While lower income groups have been more affected economically, higher income groups have experienced more changes in their social life and spending. A large fraction of people of low and high income groups report negative effects on well-being. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-021-09560-z VL - 19 SP - 769 EP - 783 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Papageorge, Nicholas W. A1 - Zahn, Matthew V. A1 - Belot, Michèle A1 - van den Broek-Altenburg, Eline A1 - Choi, Syngjoo A1 - Jamison, Julian C. A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Socio-demographic factors associated with self-protecting behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic JF - Journal of Population Economics N2 - Given the role of human behavior in the spread of disease, it is vital to understand what drives people to engage in or refrain from health-related behaviors during a pandemic. This paper examines factors associated with the adoption of self-protective health behaviors, such as social distancing and mask wearing, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA. These behaviors not only reduce an individual’s own risk of infection but also limit the spread of disease to others. Despite these dual benefits, universal adoption of these behaviors is not assured. We focus on the role of socioeconomic differences in explaining behavior, relying on data collected in April 2020 during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data include information on income, gender and race along with unique variables relevant to the current pandemic, such as work arrangements and housing quality. We find that higher income is associated with larger changes in self-protective behaviors. These gradients are partially explained by the fact that people with less income are more likely to report circumstances that make adopting self-protective behaviors more difficult, such as an inability to tele-work. Both in the USA and elsewhere, policies that assume universal compliance with self-protective measures—or that otherwise do not account for socioeconomic differences in the costs of doing so—are unlikely to be effective or sustainable. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00818-x VL - 34 SP - 691 EP - 738 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goette, Lorenz A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Does positive feedback of social impact motivate prosocial behavior? A field experiment with blood donors. JF - Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization N2 - Positive feedback about the outcome of volunteers’ prosocial actions is often thought to help motivate continued volunteers’ engagement. In the context of blood donations, various collection systems have begun to provide blood donors feedback on successful utilization of their blood donation. An experiment conducted by the main NGO that supports the collection of blood in Italy studies how such feedback affects subsequent blood donations. From a sample of over 8’000 blood donors, we find that providing feedback of successful utilization decreases donations. Though surprising, these results are consistent with theoretical models in which individuals engage in prosocial behavior to sustain a positive self-image: feedback about the outcome of a recent donation can act as reminders that boost self-image and reduce the need for re-engaging soon in prosocial activities. Interestingly for policy, we also show that combining the feedback with an explicit request to sign up for a new donation can eliminate, but not overturn, the negative effect of the feedback. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2020.04.014 VL - 175 SP - 1 EP - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goette, Lorenz A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - The limits of social recognition: Experimental evidence from blood donors JF - Journal of Public Economics N2 - Does social recognition motivate prosocial individuals? We run large-scale experiments at Italy’s main blood donors association, evaluating social recognition through social media and peer groups against a simple ask to donate. Across several studies, we find that the simple ask is at least as effective as offering social recognition. In a survey experiment with blood donors we show that socially recognized donations signal not only altruism but also image-seeking. This can lead to social recognition being less effective, or even counterproductive, when offered to those who are already perceived as good citizens. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2024.105069 VL - 231 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Roth, Christopher A1 - Schwardmann, Peter A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Depression Stigma N2 - Throughout history, people with mental illness have been discriminated against and stigmatized. Our experiment provides a new measure of perceived depression stigma and then investigates the causal effect of perceived stigma on help-seeking in a sample of 1,844 Americans suffering from depression. A large majority of our participants overestimate the extent of stigma associated with depression. In contrast to prior correlational evidence, lowering perceived social stigma through an information intervention leads to a reduction in the demand for psychotherapy. A mechanism experiment reveals that this information increases optimism about future mental health, thereby reducing the perceived need for therapy. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4772585 ET - CESifo Working Paper No. 11012 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Kölle, Felix A1 - Quercia, Simone A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Social Preferences under the Shadow of the Future N2 - Social interactions predominantly take place under the shadow of the future. Previous literature explains cooperation in indefinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma as predominantly driven by self-interested strategic considerations. This paper provides a causal test of the importance of social preferences for cooperation, varying the composition of interactions to be either homogeneous or heterogeneous in terms of these preferences. Through a series of pre-registered experiments (N = 1,074), we show that groups of prosocial individuals achieve substantially higher levels of cooperation. The cooperation gap between prosocial and selfish groups persists even when the shadow of the future is increased to make cooperation attractive for the selfish and when common knowledge about group composition is removed. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4506320 ET - CESifo Working Paper No. 10534 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Roth, Christopher A1 - Schwardmann, Peter A1 - Tripodi, Egon T1 - Misperceived Effectiveness and the Demand for Psychotherapy T2 - Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers N2 - While psychotherapy has been shown to be effective in treating depression, take-up remains low. In a sample of 1,843 depressed individuals, we document that effectiveness concerns are top-of-mind when respondents consider the value of therapy. We then show that the average respondent underestimates the effectiveness of therapy and that an information treatment correcting this misperception increases participants’ incentivized willingness to pay for therapy. Information affects therapy demand by changing beliefs rather than by shifting attention. Our results suggest that information interventions that target the perceived effectiveness of therapy are a potent tool in combating the ongoing mental health crisis. T3 - Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers - 36 Y1 - 2024 UR - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-53621 ET - No. 36 ER -