Anthropo-Lab // How effective are behavioral interventions at fostering pro-sociality ? A meta-analytic review

Nicolas Jacquemet is full professor of economics at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (CES) and the Paris School of Economics, where he is heading the Master in Economics and Psychology. He co-authored « Experimental Economics: Method and Applications » with Olivier l’Haridon at Cambridge University Press (2019). His research combines experimental methods and econometrics to study discrimination, gender differences in labor market outcomes, the role of social pre-involvement in strategic behaviour, and experimental game theory. His research has been published in leading journals both in economics (Econometrica, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Applied Econometrics) and beyond (Management Science, PNAS, PLoS ONE).

Summary of the presentation

Moral appeals, also referred to as moral reminders or moral nudges, are widely used by governments, companies, and NGOs to promote pro-social behavior. These appeals function by either increasing the salience of moral concerns or preventing participants from diverting attention away from relevant information on payoffs or social norms. Drawing on over 400 studies across psychology, sociology, management and economics, we present a meta-analysis of their effects. Our findings reveal that, on average, moral appeals are effective, with an effect size of 0.202 SMD in a random-effects model. We identify sources of heterogeneity based on disciplinary focus and methodological approaches. Crucially, we distinguish between four types of moral reminders: those that provide information on consequences, those that highlight descriptive or injunctive norms, and those that prime moral awareness. Our analysis shows that priming and information on consequences yield significantly larger effects than reminders about social norms, which appear less susceptible to motivated reasoning and, consequently, less responsive to moral appeals.

Interested ?! please let me know: Marie Pelé (marie.pele@univ-catholille.fr)