Moral Suasion and the Private Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

We study how moral suasion that appeals to two major ethical theories, Consequentialism and Deontology, affects individual intentions to contribute to a public good. We use the COVID-19 pandemic as an exemplary case where there is a large gap between private and social costs and where moral suasion has been widely used as a policy instrument. Based on a survey experiment with a representative sample of around 3500 Germans at the beginning of the pandemic, we study how moral appeals affect contributions with low and high opportunity costs, hand washing and social distancing, to reduce the infection externality as well as the support for governmental regulation. We find that Deontological moral suasion, appealing to individual moral duty, is effective in increasing planned social distancing and hand-washing, while a Consequentialist appeal only increases planned hand-washing. Both appeals increase support for governmental regulation. Exploring heterogeneous treatment effects reveals that younger respondents are more susceptible to Deontological appeals. Our results highlight the potential of moral appeals to induce intended private contributions to a public good or the reduction of externalities, which can help to overcome collective action problems for a range of environmental issues.

Evaluating expectations from social and behavioral science about COVID-19 and lessons for the next pandemic

“…Two claims from 2020 specifically outlined expectations for how trusted sources and leadership may be relevant to promoting public health guidelines. There was a significant amount of research supporting these expectations, though the best quality evidence from consequential settings was replicated only in relation to the claim that the most effective messaging comes from trusted sources [79][80][81][82][83][84] . Similar conclusions were made for how leaders could promote cooperation, but this evidence was limited to surveys and correlational studies.…”

Can Moral Reminders Curb Corruption? Evidence from an Online Classroom Experiment

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