On the norms of charitable giving in Islam: Two field experiments in Morocco
On the norms of charitable giving in Islam: Two field experiments in Morocco
Charitable giving is one of the major obligations in Islam and a strong Muslim norm endorses giving to the needy, but discourages public displays of giving. We report the results two field experiments with 534 and 200 participants at Moroccan educational institutions to assess the effects of this moral prescription on actual giving levels in anonymous and public settings. Subjects who participated in a paid study were given the option to donate from their payment to a local orphanage, under treatments that varied the publicity of the donation and the salience of Islamic values using either Arabic or French instructions. In the salient Islamic treatment, anonymity of donations significantly increased donation incidence from 59% to 77% percent as well as average donations for religious subjects from 8.90 to 13.00Dh out of possibly 30Dh. These findings stand in stark contrast to most previous findings in the charitable giving literature and suggest to reconsider potential fundraising strategies in Muslim populations.
Social pressure, Field experiment, charitable giving, Islam, Priming, religion
69-84
Lambarraa, Fatima
66b300fd-bfa3-4eb8-90eb-a92e492878e1
Riener, Gerhard
8e8e27a6-4931-4e70-b223-688f3fd616c1
October 2015
Lambarraa, Fatima
66b300fd-bfa3-4eb8-90eb-a92e492878e1
Riener, Gerhard
8e8e27a6-4931-4e70-b223-688f3fd616c1
Lambarraa, Fatima and Riener, Gerhard
(2015)
On the norms of charitable giving in Islam: Two field experiments in Morocco.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 118, .
(doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2015.05.006).
Abstract
Charitable giving is one of the major obligations in Islam and a strong Muslim norm endorses giving to the needy, but discourages public displays of giving. We report the results two field experiments with 534 and 200 participants at Moroccan educational institutions to assess the effects of this moral prescription on actual giving levels in anonymous and public settings. Subjects who participated in a paid study were given the option to donate from their payment to a local orphanage, under treatments that varied the publicity of the donation and the salience of Islamic values using either Arabic or French instructions. In the salient Islamic treatment, anonymity of donations significantly increased donation incidence from 59% to 77% percent as well as average donations for religious subjects from 8.90 to 13.00Dh out of possibly 30Dh. These findings stand in stark contrast to most previous findings in the charitable giving literature and suggest to reconsider potential fundraising strategies in Muslim populations.
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Accepted/In Press date: 11 May 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 May 2015
Published date: October 2015
Keywords:
Social pressure, Field experiment, charitable giving, Islam, Priming, religion
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 479264
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/479264
ISSN: 0167-2681
PURE UUID: 538be933-f271-4a68-a2e9-d442225b5c5f
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Date deposited: 20 Jul 2023 16:50
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:18
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Author:
Fatima Lambarraa
Author:
Gerhard Riener
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