The impact of goals and public rewards on a prosocial behaviour: an exploratory economic experiment

Given that private rewards have mixed effectiveness in the realm of prosocial behaviours (Bénabou and Tirole, 2006), we explore whether a 'public' reward (denominated in additional units of public good provision) successfully encourages prosocial behaviour in the form of increased donations to a project aimed at improving atmospheric air quality. Our experiment consists of a dictator game designed to address (1) if the presence of a goal increases voluntary contributions to improving environmental quality and (2) if an additional public reward further increases voluntary contributions. We find a significant goal effect overall, yet no added public reward effect.