Despite increasing efforts to encourage the adoption of field experiments in marketing research (e.g., Campbell 1969; Cialdini 1980; Li et al. 2015), the majority of scholars continue to rely ...primarily on laboratory studies (Cialdini 2009). For example, of the 50 articles published in Journal of Marketing Research in 2013, only three (6%) were based on field experiments. The goal of this article is to motivate a methodological shift in marketing research and increase the proportion of empirical findings obtained using field experiments. The author begins by making a case for field experiments and offers a description of their defining features. She then demonstrates the unique value that field experiments can offer and concludes with a discussion of key considerations that researchers should be mindful of when designing, planning, and running field experiments.
Does the consumption of ideologically congruent news on social media exacerbate polarization? I estimate the effects of social media news exposure by conducting a large field experiment randomly ...offering participants subscriptions to conservative or liberal news outlets on Facebook. I collect data on the causal chain of media effects: subscriptions to outlets, exposure to news on Facebook, visits to online news sites, and sharing of posts, as well as changes in political opinions and attitudes. Four main findings emerge. First, random variation in exposure to news on social media substantially affects the slant of news sites that individuals visit. Second, exposure to counter-attitudinal news decreases negative attitudes toward the opposing political party. Third, in contrast to the effect on attitudes, I find no evidence that the political leanings of news outlets affect political opinions. Fourth, Facebook’s algorithm is less likely to supply individuals with posts from counter-attitudinal outlets, conditional on individuals subscribing to them. Together, the results suggest that social media algorithms may limit exposure to counter-attitudinal news and thus increase polarization.
This paper presents results from two large-scale natural field experiments that tested the effect of social norm messages on tax compliance. Using administrative data from >200,000 individuals in the ...United Kingdom, we show that including social norm messages in standard reminder letters increases payment rates for overdue tax. This result offers a rare example of social norm messages affecting tax compliance behavior in a real world setting. We find no evidence that loss framing is more effective than gain framing. Descriptive norms appear to be more effective than injunctive norms. Messages referring to public services or financial information also significantly increased payment rates. The field experiments accelerated the collection of tax revenue at little cost.
•We present results from two large natural field experiments that use data from 200,000 individuals in the United Kingdom.•Including social norms and public services messages in official reminder letters increased payment rates for overdue tax.•This low-cost intervention offers a rare example of social norm messages increasing tax compliance in a real world setting.
Abstract
Since the discovery of neutrino oscillations, we know that neutrinos have non-zero mass. However, the absolute neutrino-mass scale remains unknown. Here we report the upper limits on ...effective electron anti-neutrino mass,
m
ν
, from the second physics run of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment. In this experiment,
m
ν
is probed via a high-precision measurement of the tritium
β
-decay spectrum close to its endpoint. This method is independent of any cosmological model and does not rely on assumptions whether the neutrino is a Dirac or Majorana particle. By increasing the source activity and reducing the background with respect to the first physics campaign, we reached a sensitivity on
m
ν
of 0.7 eV
c
–2
at a 90% confidence level (CL). The best fit to the spectral data yields
$${{\mbox{}}}{m}_{\nu }^{2}{{\mbox{}}}$$
m
ν
2
= (0.26 ± 0.34) eV
2
c
–4
, resulting in an upper limit of
m
ν
< 0.9 eV
c
–2
at 90% CL. By combining this result with the first neutrino-mass campaign, we find an upper limit of
m
ν
< 0.8 eV
c
–2
at 90% CL.
Is there a way of matching donations that avoids crowding out? We introduce a novel matching method where the matched amount is allocated to a different project, present some simple theoretical ...considerations that predict reduced crowding out or crowding in (depending on the degree of substitutability between the two projects) and present evidence from a large-scale natural field experiment and a laboratory experiment. Similar to findings in the literature, conventional matching for the same project results in partial crowding out in the field experiment and, as predicted, crowding out is reduced under the novel matching scheme. The lab experiment provides more fine-tuned evidence for the change in crowding and yields further support for the theory: the novel matching method works best when the two projects are complements rather than substitutes.
•Matching donations, while common in practice, has been shown to cause partial crowding out.•Simple theoretical considerations suggest that using matching funds for an alternative project may improve outcomes.•Crowding out will be reduced if the second project is a substitute to the first and even more if it is a complement.•Results from a field experiment indicate that crowding out can be reduced if matching funds are used for an alternative project.•Our laboratory experiment further confirms the superior performance of using matching funds for a complementary project.
In this paper, we study the correlation between cheating in the lab and cheating in the field. We conduct a laboratory experiment using a variant of the Mind game (Jiang, 2013). Payoffs above a ...certain threshold are indicative of cheating behavior. Subjects are paid their earnings by bank transfer. A fraction of the subjects is deliberately paid more than their earnings. We send subjects a reminder e-mail stating their earnings and asking them if they have received their payment. We find a significant correlation of 0.31 between cheating in the lab and in the field. Subjects with higher payoffs in the Mind game are also less likely to report the overpayment. Our results speak to the lab-field generalizability of cheating behavior.
•Using a longitudinal field experiment, we find that an entrepreneur mentor increases the likelihood of joining a startup.•The entrepreneur mentor effect was significantly stronger for students whose ...parents were not entrepreneurs.•Performance data suggests that social influence is not encouraging “worse” quality entrepreneurship.•We contribute by examining the interaction between multiple sources of social influence.•We contribute by using a randomized field experiment to overcome the endogenous process of tie formation.
How do different sources of social influence impact the likelihood of entrepreneurship? We examine this question in the setting of an entrepreneurship class in which students were randomly assigned to receive mentorship from either an entrepreneur or a non-entrepreneur. Using a longitudinal field experiment with a pre-test/post-test design, we find that randomization to an entrepreneur mentor increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial careers, particularly for students whose parents were not entrepreneurs. Additional analysis shows the mentor influences the decision to join an early-stage venture, but not to become a founder. Performance data suggests that entrepreneurial influence is not encouraging “worse” entrepreneurship and may have helped students in joining or founding better-performing ventures. We contribute to the literature on social influence in entrepreneurship by examining the interaction between multiple sources of social influence and by using a randomized field experiment to overcome the endogenous process of tie formation.
We study the effect of physician workforce diversity on the demand for preventive care among African American men. In an experiment in Oakland, California, we randomize black men to black or ...non-black male medical doctors. We use a two-stage design, measuring decisions before (pre-consultation) and after (post-consultation) meeting their assigned doctor. Subjects select a similar number of preventives in the pre-consultation stage, but are much more likely to select every preventive service, particularly invasive services, once meeting with a racially concordant doctor. Our findings suggest black doctors could reduce the black-white male gap in cardiovascular mortality by 19 percent.
Online crowdfunding has received a great deal of attention as a promising avenue to fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. Because online settings bring increased visibility and traceability of ...transactions, many crowdfunding platforms provide mechanisms that enable a campaign contributor to conceal his or her identity or contribution amount from peers. We study the impact of these information (privacy) control mechanisms on crowdfunder behavior. Employing a randomized experiment at one of the world’s largest online crowdfunding platforms, we find evidence of both positive (e.g., comfort) and negative (e.g., privacy priming) causal effects. We find that reducing access to information controls induces a net increase in fund-raising, yet this outcome results from two competing influences—treatment increases willingness to engage with the platform (a 4.9% increase in the probability of contribution) and simultaneously decreases the average contribution (a $5.81 decline). This decline derives from a publicity effect, wherein contributors respond to a lack of privacy by tempering extreme contributions. We unravel the causal mechanisms that drive the results and discuss the implications of our findings for the design of online platforms.
This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation.
PDF
