TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of Peer, Politician, and Celebrity Endorsements on Volunteering: A Field Experiment with English Students
AU - John, Peter
AU - James, Oliver
AU - Moseley, Alice
AU - Ryan, Matt
AU - Richardson, Liz
AU - Stoker, Gerry
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J012424/1]. +Output from the project, Citizen Contribution to Local Public Services: Field Experiments in Institutions Incorporating Social Information ES/J012424/1. The paper was previously presented to panel: Political Mobilization Experiments in the Digital Age: A Comparative Perspective, at the American Political Science Association annual meeting, Washington, 27?31 August 2014, and to the Ninth 9th Annual Randomised Controlled Trials in the Social Sciences Conference, at the University of York, 10?11 September 2015. We are grateful to the participants, in particular David Nickerson, for comments. We thank ESRC for financial support for the project. We also are thankful for the help of staff in the five universities from volunteering units and central data services, without whom we could not have done the research. We greatly appreciate the contribution of Esteban Diamani, who worked on the project in autumn 2013, and Mike Elliott for his help with managing the data. The data for this article are deposited with the UK Data Service. Reference: Citizen contribution to local public services - Part 1. Data catalogue. UK Data Service, 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852194.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J012424/1].
Funding Information:
the Ninth 9th Annual Randomised Controlled Trials in the Social Sciences Conference, at the University of York, 10–11 September 2015. We are grateful to the participants, in particular David Nickerson, for comments. We thank ESRC for financial support for the project. We also are thankful for the help of staff in the five universities from volunteering units and central data services, without whom we could not have done the research. We greatly appreciate the contribution of Esteban Diamani, who worked on the project in autumn 2013, and Mike Elliott for his help with managing the data. The data for this article are deposited with the UK Data Service. Reference: Citizen contribution to local public services - Part 1. Data catalogue. UK Data Service, 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852194.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, © 2018 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2019/5/27
Y1 - 2019/5/27
N2 - Endorsement is used by charitable organizations to stimulate public support, including monetary donations. This article reports a field experiment that examined the effect of leader and peer endorsement on student volunteering. The experiment was conducted with over 100,000 students from five UK universities and compared the effect on volunteering rates of email endorsements by politicians, celebrities, and peers, to a control group that received an email but no endorsement. We examined outcomes seven weeks after the original e-mails, including click-throughs to volunteering unit websites, attendance at volunteering training, registration with volunteering units, and actual volunteering. Peer endorsements reduced click-throughs to volunteering unit websites. There were positive treatment effects for endorsement by politicians on subsequent training but no significant effects of any of the endorsements on our other outcome measures. Overall, we found little support for the provision of leader and celebrity endorsement, and confirm negative effects for peer endorsement.
AB - Endorsement is used by charitable organizations to stimulate public support, including monetary donations. This article reports a field experiment that examined the effect of leader and peer endorsement on student volunteering. The experiment was conducted with over 100,000 students from five UK universities and compared the effect on volunteering rates of email endorsements by politicians, celebrities, and peers, to a control group that received an email but no endorsement. We examined outcomes seven weeks after the original e-mails, including click-throughs to volunteering unit websites, attendance at volunteering training, registration with volunteering units, and actual volunteering. Peer endorsements reduced click-throughs to volunteering unit websites. There were positive treatment effects for endorsement by politicians on subsequent training but no significant effects of any of the endorsements on our other outcome measures. Overall, we found little support for the provision of leader and celebrity endorsement, and confirm negative effects for peer endorsement.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055559969&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10495142.2018.1526743
DO - 10.1080/10495142.2018.1526743
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85055559969
VL - 31
SP - 328
EP - 346
JO - Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing
JF - Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing
SN - 1049-5142
IS - 3
ER -