Moral Wiggle Room through Ambiguity as a Foot in the Door: Can We Tap into Consumers’ (Illusions of) Prosociality for Good?

“Moral wiggle room” theories suggest that people behave less prosocially under ambiguity, as the wiggle room helps justify their inaction. In this research, we examine when ambiguity can instead be harnessed to encourage prosociality. In four main studies and two supplemental studies (n=3,973), we predict and find that people are more willing to sign up for prosocial opportunities under more (vs. less) ambiguity. We subsequently find no differences in prosocial behavior conditional on sign-ups, suggesting that sign-ups act as a foot in the door and lead to increased rates of real prosocial behavior. We also identify underlying contexts for this effect. Moral wiggle room enables people to maintain an illusion of prosociality while feeling less personally responsible to follow through. Additionally, the effect of ambiguity on prosocial sign-ups attenuates when consumers feel a low personal cost to engaging in the behavior. These results have important implications for organizations seeking to increase consumers’ moral and prosocial behaviors.