Wang Wenhua, Li Shuaiqi, Li Jianbiao, Wang Yujun
China Academy of Corporate Governance, Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Institute for Study of Brain-like Economics, School of Economics, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 26;12:736002. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.736002. eCollection 2021.
The positive effect of social information on nudging prosocial behavior is context dependent. Understanding how sensitive intervention outcomes are to changes in the choice context is essential for policy design, especially in times of great uncertainty, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The present paper explores the effectiveness of social information in changing voluntary blood donation intention in two contexts: before and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. In addition to the dimension of context, information content and its source are also important. Using a survey administered to 1,116 participants, we conducted an intertemporal randomized-controlled experiment to systematically analyze how information can effectively nudge the intention to donate blood. Compared with content featuring blood donors' commendation information, blood users' demand information is found to have a stronger nudging effect. An official information source has a greater influence on participants' donation intention than an unofficial source. Furthermore, our analysis of two waves of experimental data (i.e., before and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic) shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has further enhanced the nudging effect of blood users' demand information and official information sources. These findings provide a theoretical basis and policy recommendations for relevant institutions to develop effective blood donation campaign strategies.
社会信息对推动亲社会行为的积极影响取决于具体情境。了解干预结果对选择情境变化的敏感程度对于政策设计至关重要，尤其是在当前新冠疫情这样充满巨大不确定性的时期。本文探讨了在中国新冠疫情高峰期之前和之后这两种情境下，社会信息在改变自愿献血意愿方面的有效性。除了情境维度外，信息内容及其来源也很重要。我们对1116名参与者进行了一项调查，并开展了一项跨期随机对照实验，以系统分析信息如何能有效地推动献血意愿。与包含献血者表彰信息的内容相比，发现用血者需求信息具有更强的推动作用。官方信息来源对参与者的献血意愿影响比非官方来源更大。此外，我们对两波实验数据（即新冠疫情高峰期之前和之后）的分析表明，新冠疫情进一步增强了用血者需求信息和官方信息来源的推动作用。这些发现为相关机构制定有效的献血宣传策略提供了理论依据和政策建议。
