Social proof is ineffective at spurring costly proenvironmental household investments

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dc.contributor.authorSCHNEIDER, Philipp
dc.contributor.authorBUSKENS, Vincent
dc.contributor.authorVAN DE RIJT, Arnout
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-11T08:45:34Z
dc.date.available2023-09-11T08:45:34Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.descriptionPublished online: 09 September 2023en
dc.description.abstractOne of the most popular techniques of persuasion in online marketing is social proof, also referred to as social validation. It takes advantage of the fact that when other individuals have decided in favor of a particular behavior people are more likely to follow that behavior as it is perceived as more valid. Yet there is a theoretical reason to be skeptical about the effectiveness of this persuasion technique for the encouragement of more costly investment decisions taken under high uncertainty. This study investigated the effectiveness of social proof in influencing consumer responses to calls for action on a bank’s sustainable home improvement website. A first field experiment investigated whether participants engaged more with a webpage that provided a personalized testimonial or informed users that thousands of other clients had used the bank’s sustainable home improvement services. A second field experiment encouraged clients to use the bank’s services to obtain solar panels and we again investigated whether clients engaged more with a webpage that provided a personalized testimonial rather than without such a testimonial. Clients were directed to these webpages through a newsletter that is distributed to half a million clients of the bank. Overall, our evidence suggests that messages of social proof are ineffective at urging customers to consider larger pro-environmental household investments, let alone making those investments.en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationOnline journal of communication and media technologies, 2023, Vol. 13, No.4, Art. e202351, OnlineOnlyen
dc.identifier.doi10.30935/ojcmt/13655
dc.identifier.issn1986-3497
dc.identifier.issue4
dc.identifier.othere202351
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1814/75854
dc.identifier.volume13
dc.language.isoenen
dc.orcid.uploadtrue*
dc.publisherBastas Publicationsen
dc.relation.ispartofOnline journal of communication and media technologiesen
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen
dc.rights.licenseAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.titleSocial proof is ineffective at spurring costly proenvironmental household investmentsen
dc.typeArticleen
dspace.entity.typePublication
eui.subscribe.skiptrue
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-4208-3452
person.identifier.other52463
person.identifier.other43992
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationcebc2aa0-df7a-4807-9be5-673f9007536b
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationadc2f95d-84a8-46ae-a3af-389c05230d9e
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscoverycebc2aa0-df7a-4807-9be5-673f9007536b
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