Subliminal influence on generosity
(2017) In Experimental Economics 20(3). p.531-555- Abstract
We experimentally subliminally prime subjects prior to charity donation decisions by showing words that have connotations of pro-social values for a very brief time (17 ms). Our main finding is that, compared to a baseline condition, the pro-social prime increases donations by approximately 10–17 % among subjects with strong pro-social preferences (universalism values). We find a similar effect when interacting the prime with the Big 5 personality characteristic of agreeableness. We furthermore introduce a novel method for testing for priming, “subliminity”. This method reveals that some subjects are capable of recognizing prime words, and the overall results are weaker when we control for this capacity.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a6f3ee3a-edea-43f6-bc0b-2e7ca0a70504
- author
- Andersson, Ola LU ; Miettinen, Topi ; Hytönen, Kaisa ; Johannesson, Magnus and Stephan, Ute
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Charity, Personality, Priming, Pro-social, Subliminal, Universalism, Values
- in
- Experimental Economics
- volume
- 20
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 531 - 555
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000407373300001
- scopus:84991404508
- ISSN
- 1386-4157
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10683-016-9498-8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a6f3ee3a-edea-43f6-bc0b-2e7ca0a70504
- date added to LUP
- 2016-10-31 09:44:27
- date last changed
- 2025-01-12 14:03:07
@article{a6f3ee3a-edea-43f6-bc0b-2e7ca0a70504, abstract = {{<p>We experimentally subliminally prime subjects prior to charity donation decisions by showing words that have connotations of pro-social values for a very brief time (17 ms). Our main finding is that, compared to a baseline condition, the pro-social prime increases donations by approximately 10–17 % among subjects with strong pro-social preferences (universalism values). We find a similar effect when interacting the prime with the Big 5 personality characteristic of agreeableness. We furthermore introduce a novel method for testing for priming, “subliminity”. This method reveals that some subjects are capable of recognizing prime words, and the overall results are weaker when we control for this capacity.</p>}}, author = {{Andersson, Ola and Miettinen, Topi and Hytönen, Kaisa and Johannesson, Magnus and Stephan, Ute}}, issn = {{1386-4157}}, keywords = {{Charity; Personality; Priming; Pro-social; Subliminal; Universalism; Values}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{531--555}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, series = {{Experimental Economics}}, title = {{Subliminal influence on generosity}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10683-016-9498-8}}, doi = {{10.1007/s10683-016-9498-8}}, volume = {{20}}, year = {{2017}}, }