Subliminal Influence on Generosity

Abstract We experimentally prime subjects subliminally prior to charity donation decisions by showing words that have connotations to prosocial values for a very short duration of time (17ms). Our main finding is that, compared to a baseline condition, the prosocial prime increases donations with about 10-17 percent among subjects with strong prosocial preferences. A similar effect is also found in our data when interacting the prime with the personality characteristic of BigFive agreeableness. We also contribute with providing an arguably better method for testing for "sublimity". The method reveals that some subjects are capable of recognizing some of the prime words, and the results are overall weaker when we control for this capacity.

Keywords: Charity, subliminal, priming, universalism, values, personality

JEL Classification: C91, D01, D03

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Andersson, Ola and Andersson, Ola and Miettinen, Topi and Hytönen, Kaisa and Johannesson, Magnus and Stephan, Ute, Subliminal Influence on Generosity (October 2, 2015). IFN Working Paper No. 1084, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2668528