The Effect of Communication Channels on Promise-Making and Promise-Keeping

19 Pages Posted: 25 Oct 2014

See all articles by Julian Conrads

Julian Conrads

University of Cologne - Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences

Tommaso Reggiani

Masaryk University

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of different communication channels on promise-making and promise-keeping in a helping situation. Four treatments differ with respect to the communication channel employed to solicit unincentivized cooperation, i.e., face-to-face, phone call and two different sorts of computer-mediated communication. The less anonymous (face-to-face, phone) the interpersonal interaction is due to the different communication channels, the higher the propensity of an agent to make a promise. Treatment effects, however, vanish if we then look at the actual promise-keeping rates across treatments as more anonymous channels (computer-mediated) do not perform relatively worse than more direct channels.

Keywords: promises, communication, experimental economics, organizational behavior, behavioral ethics

JEL Classification: D02, D83, C91

Suggested Citation

Conrads, Julian and Reggiani, Tommaso, The Effect of Communication Channels on Promise-Making and Promise-Keeping. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8534, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2514727 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2514727

Julian Conrads (Contact Author)

University of Cologne - Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences ( email )

Richard-Strauss-Str. 2
Cologne, D-50923
Germany

Tommaso Reggiani

Masaryk University ( email )

Zerotinovo nam. 9
60177 Brno, 603 00
Czech Republic

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.muni.cz/en/people/241092-tommaso-reggiani

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