Promises on the go: A field study on keeping one's word

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Patricia Kanngiesser¹  Daniil Serko²  Jan K. Woike³ 

[1] Faculty of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany;School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom;Max Planck Research Group iSearch, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany;School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom;Center for Adaptive Rationality (ARC), Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany;

关键词: promises;    commitments;    cheating;    honesty;    behavioral ethics;    behavioral change;    decision making;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1097239

 received in 2022-11-13, accepted in 2023-02-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Promises are voluntary commitments to perform a future action and are often thought to be powerful levers for behavioral change. Here we studied the effectiveness of promises in two preregistered, incentivized field experiments with German students (N = 406) on the premises of a cafeteria. In Experiment 1, the majority of participants (63%) kept their promise to pay back at least half of a € 4-endowment, even though there was no foreseeable cost of breaking the promise, reputational or otherwise. Significantly fewer participants (22%) paid back money in a control group that faced a simple decision to return money or not. In Experiment 2, the majority of participants (54%) kept their promise to add a provided stamp to a postcard and mail it back (anonymously) within a week. We found similar return rates (52%) for a second group for which the word “promise” was omitted from the commitment. Our findings show that participants kept their word outside the laboratory while pursuing everyday activities even when there were no foreseeable negative consequences for breaking them, demonstrating that promises are effective levers for behavioral change.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Kanngiesser, Serko and Woike.