A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Subliminal influence on generosity
Authors: Andersson O, Miettinen T, Hytonen K, Johannesson M, Stephan U
Publisher: SPRINGER
Publishing place: GZ DORDRECHT,
Publication year: 2017
Journal: Experimental Economics
Journal name in source: EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS
Journal acronym: EXP ECON
Volume: 20
Issue: 3
First page : 531
Last page: 555
Number of pages: 25
ISSN: 1386-4157
eISSN: 1573-6938
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-016-9498-8
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.
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.
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