Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/104677 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8534
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates the effect of different communication channels on promise-making and promise-keeping in a helping situation. Four treatments differ with respect to the communication channel employed to solicit unincentivized cooperation, i.e., face-to-face, phone call and two different sorts of computer-mediated communication. The less anonymous (face-to-face, phone) the interpersonal interaction is due to the different communication channels, the higher the propensity of an agent to make a promise. Treatment effects, however, vanish if we then look at the actual promise-keeping rates across treatments as more anonymous channels (computer-mediated) do not perform relatively worse than more direct channels.
Subjects: 
promises
communication
experimental economics
organizational behavior
behavioral ethics
JEL: 
D02
D83
C91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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