The framing of charitable giving: A field experiment at bottle refund machines in Germany

Abstract

This article investigates the decision of consumers at bottle refund machines to either reclaim their bottle deposit or to donate the refund to a non-profit organization. The study documents the unique pre-intervention data on donating behaviour and introduces a field experiment to increase donation levels. The design comprised the strategic framing of the situation by highlighting different cues about the normative, descriptive and local expectations of charitable giving as well as cues about the warm glow of donating money. The experiment took place in 20 supermarkets in Germany and lasted for 12 months. By varying the experimental design and using different modelling approaches, the study arrives at the conclusion that individuals largely act consistent with the assumption having self-regarding preferences that are stable and difficult to change. Hence, our pre-test and post-intervention data stand in sharp contrast to results from lab experiments.