Avoiding Peer Information and Its Effects on Charity Crowdfunding: A Field Experiment
通过慈善众筹的实地实验发现，89%的人选择不看同伴信息，这种行为会减少活动传播8.5%和捐款额7.7%，并分析了同伴比较压力如何驱动这一行为。
We study the behavior of an individual avoiding peer information from a natural field experiment of charity crowdfunding. The unique experimental design enables us to employ an instrumental variable strategy to identify how the behavior influences individual giving to and promotion of charity campaigns. We find that, even with free access, 89% of individuals chose not to seek peer information. These individuals were less likely, whereas their peers were more likely to give and help promote in the past. The behavior would reduce the total distribution of campaigns by 8.5% and the total donation amount by 7.7%. A stylized model is used to illustrate how the pressure from peer comparison drives the individuals not to seek the information and how this behavior could influence giving and promoting behaviors of a group of marginal individuals. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis. Funding: The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72103110]. Supplemental Material: The data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4807 .