Does Social Accountability Motivate Commitment Behavior Among College Students?

App-based tasks with soft commitments and social accountability (the ability of others to see one’s intentions and behaviors) have been shown to improve performance on exams among college students, especially in online classes. This study adds to the literature by investigating whether social accountability and commitment devices complement each other in motivating desired behaviors, such as the likelihood of committing to complete a designated task. In a randomized controlled trial of 210 students in fall of 2020, some of the students’ usernames were anonymized to generate variation in social accountability. Results show that social accountability, when the student’s name is revealed to other participants, leads to a lower likelihood of committing to a task, especially among students in face-to-face classes. A 9.7 to 11 percentage point decline in commitments was observed, which is equivalent to a 20% reduction in commitments compared to participants who remain anonymous. While surprising, this finding is consistent with higher effectiveness of commitments among online students who are less likely to know their classmates and, therefore, face less social accountability. This suggests that the effectiveness of commitment devices used in face-to-face classes may be enhanced with anonymity by increasing the likelihood of commitments. Therefore, designers of policies that induce behavioral change should consider whether to make commitments and participation statistics public or allow participants to remain anonymous.