Randomized studies in China show that studying and promoting civic honesty needs to consider local norms.

ABSTRACT: Civic honesty is a crucial behavior that policymakers and business leaders strive to promote among citizens and employees. We conducted online and field experiments in China adapting the setting of a recent research which employed an innovative design to study civic honesty behavior around the globe. Results show that the psychological mechanism underlying lost-wallet reporting behavior in China is somewhat different from what has been suggested in the literature. Chinese participants indicated they are significantly more likely to put WeChat than email as contact information on their lost items, corroborating a local norm in China that email is infrequently used by ordinary Chinese citizens. Moreover, we tested multiple behavioral interventions in the field. Aiding a lost-property finder

SUBMITTER: Hung IW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11779863 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature