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Can a Catholic institution promote sustainable behavior? Field experimental evidence on donations for climate protection

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  • Feldhaus, Christoph
  • Gleue, Marvin
  • Löschel, Andreas

Abstract

We conduct a field experiment with the visitors of the German Catholic Convention in Münster, Germany. We aim to investigate the effect of the announced attitude of a Catholic institution concerning climate protection efforts, of the salience of people's religious identity and of the corresponding interaction on people's willingness to donate for climate protection. Our results suggest that the supporting signal by the Catholic institution substantially increases donations by about 56 % (from 0.95 € to 1.48 € per participant). This effect is mainly driven by more subjects donating, as the share of donators increases by 8 percentage points due to the signal (from 17 % to 25 %). We observe neither a direct effect of the salient religious identity nor an interaction of the salient identity with the institution's signal. Our results thus indicate that a Catholic authority can actually promote sustainable behavior. This effect seems not strengthened when people's religious identity is rendered salient or limited to the most religious people or religious people in their most religious state of mind.

Suggested Citation

  • Feldhaus, Christoph & Gleue, Marvin & Löschel, Andreas, 2022. "Can a Catholic institution promote sustainable behavior? Field experimental evidence on donations for climate protection," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:98:y:2022:i:c:s2214804322000301
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101855
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate mitigation; Charitable giving; Priming; Religiosity; Field experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

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