The role of social information, market framing, and diffusion of responsibility as determinants of socially responsible behavior

an article by Bernd Irlenbusch and David J.Saxler (University of Cologne, Germany) publsihed in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 80 (June 2019)

Highlights

• Buyer/seller framing tends to encourage subjects to make purely self-interested decisions.
• Social information about others who behaved socially responsible increases social responsibility.
• When comparing individual decisions with joint decisions, like the ones in buyer/seller interactions, we observe no effect of diffusion of responsibility on social responsibility.

Abstract

A recent debate raises questions on what shapes socially responsible behavior.

In an experiment, we disentangle major determinants, social information, buyer/seller framing and diffusion of responsibility, and provide evidence on how they influence decisions when decision-makers can gain money by harming uninvolved parties.

Our results show that buyer/seller framing tends to encourage subjects to make purely self-interested decisions. In contrast, social information about others who behaved socially responsible increases social responsibility.

When comparing individual decisions with joint decisions, we observe no effect of diffusion of responsibility on socially responsible behavior.

JEL classification: C92, D47

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