THE EFFECTS OF A MORAL APPEAL ON
PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOR
Master thesis, MSc. Human Resource Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics & Business
July, 2012
JOLANDA PETRONELLA MARIA MARS Student number: s1741004 Sint Lucasstraat 7a 9718 LP Groningen Tel.: 0615656913 Email: J.P.M.Mars@student.rug.nl Supervisor / University L.B.Mulder@rug.nl University of Groningen
ABSTRACT
Previous studies have demonstrated that people’s behavior can be influenced by the use of moral appeals. This paper aimed to test whether the use of a moral appeal could influence the responses to the course evaluations at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. It was hypothesized that the presence of a moral appeal would decrease the response rate of students who hardly filled out the course evaluations in the past and the presence of a moral appeal would increase the response rate of students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past. A field experiment was conducted at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen, in which the presence of a moral appeal was manipulated. Results showed that student’s current response rate was not influenced by the presence of a moral appeal, and that this relation was not moderated by student’s response history. Additional measures found that there was a positive relation between the presence of a moral appeal and student’s feelings of self-affirmation and student’s feelings of reactance. Also for these two relations no moderating effect of student’s response history was found.
Keywords:
Throughout the world universities are working hard to achieve a sufficient level of education that can be offered to their students. According to the ‘Handboek kwaliteitszorg onderwijs FEB’, course evaluations are an important source for improving the education quality of a University. Having an optimal evaluation system can result in improving the education, more satisfied students, and meeting the different requirements concerning the education level (Feenstra and Le Rütte, 2008). However, in order to obtain a representative picture of all students, it is of importance that there are a sufficient number of students to fill out the evaluations. This is where the problem from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen arises: non-responses to the course evaluations. An average response rate of 40% is pursued by the faculty, and for having a representative picture of the course, a minimum of 20% is required (Feenstra and Le Rütte, 2008). However, these numbers are practically never met (University of Groningen, 2011/2012).
According to the social dilemma theory it would be the most obvious that every person makes a decision based on his or her own self-interest, because that would be the most rational choice (Cabantous and Gond, 2011). However, research shows that this is not always the case. People often choose to cooperate, more than you would expect based on economic models (Colman, 2012). An explanation for this can be because people act based on their moral or personal norms; they have their own personal standards. Personal norms have been shown to strongly affect cooperation. They determine whether people keep to agreements of cooperation (Cubitt et al., 2011). This is supported by the study of Frey and Torgler (2006) and the study of Wenzel (2007) about paying taxes. When paying taxes, people have to make a decision whether they comply or do not comply with the tax laws. Both studies (Frey and Torgler, 2006; Wenzel, 2007)
show that social factors, such as a felt moral obligation to pay taxes honestly, and social norms influence taxpaying behavior. If taxpayers believe tax evasion to be
common, tax morale decreases. However, when taxpayers believe tax evasion is not that common, tax morale increases. In such a situation people choose to cooperate, because of their felt moral obligation to pay taxes honestly (Frey and Torgler, 2006).
Because of the importance of personal and social moral norms, creating a moral sense of duty can be seen as a way to solve a social dilemma (Dawes and Messick, 2000). But how can such a moral sense of duty are created? This can be done by the use of a moral appeal (Dawes and Messick, 2000). Moral appeals can be seen as a way to direct the audience’s attentions to what is right and proper and can influence people’s behavior (Beniers, 2009).
Although a lot of research has been done about moral appeals and moral behavior, little research has been done about the actual effects of moral appeals on people’s (moral) behavior. This is an interesting subject, because when you are aware of these effects, you can predict and eventually influence people’s behavior in advance. In this paper it is examined whether the presence of a moral appeal has an influence on the moral behavior of students. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the presence of a moral appeal is seen as an appeal to student’s morality, and whether it increases the response rate to the course evaluations.
how their behavior will be affected when they are faced with a moral appeal: the theory of self-affirmation (Schmeichel and Vohs, 2009; Steele, 1988; Sherman et al., 2009) and the reactance theory (Maziset et al., 1973; Donnel et al., 2001; Lessne and Venkatesan, 1989). These theories will be applied to the problem of non-response to the course evaluations at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen.
Self-affirmation and reactance
campaigns and programs stress once more that smoking is bad and dangerous and that people should stop smoking. However, emphasizing people’s bad behavior may prove counterproductive. In such a case the people who smoke will develop an aversive attitude towards the campaigns and programs developed to encourage people to stop smoking, and as defensive behavior they will smoke more and more (Wiium et al., 2009). The threatened behavior of smoking becomes more attractive in such a situation.
These theories of self-affirmation and reactance can also be applied to the course evaluations at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. When students receive a moral appeal they can develop feelings of self-affirmation or feelings of reactance. The way a student will react may differ between students who frequently fill out the course evaluations and students who hardly fill out the course evaluations. Students who frequently fill out the course evaluations will probably experience more self-affirmation than students who hardly fill out the course evaluations. This is because students who frequently fill out the course evaluations do not feel threatened by the moral appeal, which states that it is a moral thing to fill out the course evaluations, and see the moral appeal as a confirmation of their (earlier) behavior. The positive self-image of the students will not be affected, it may even be affirmed. Thus, when students who frequently fill out the course evaluations receive a moral appeal which affirms their (earlier) behavior, they will be more likely to fill out the course evaluations this time. However, even though students who frequently fill out the course evaluations might be self-affirmed when they receive a message with a moral appeal in it, students who hardly fill out the course evaluations might react in a different way. When those students receive a message with a moral appeal in it, which states that is it a moral thing to fill out the course evaluations, they can feel this as a restriction of their freedom. They might feel threatened by receiving such a moral appeal, because it suggests that they were wrong in the past. This might lead to defensive behavior and according to Mazis et al. (1973) a ‘boomerang’ effect can result. In such a situation the students can develop an aversive attitude towards the message and still will not fill out the course evaluations, which in turn leads to a lower response rate.
field experiment was performed at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen, where there was the problem of nonresponse to the course evaluations. The students received a questionnaire with a moral appeal in it, or a questionnaire without a moral appeal in it. Then their response history and current response rate were measured, as well as their feelings of self-affirmation and reactance. Based on the previous, the following hypothesis is proposed:
Hypothesis
The influence of a moral appeal on the response rate of students to course evaluations will depend on a student’s fill out history in such a way that moral appeals will decrease the response rate of students who hardly fill out the course evaluations and moral appeals will increase the response rate of students who frequently fill out the course evaluations
Figure 1
Conceptual model (relationship between the presence of a moral appeal and the response rate to course evaluations, moderated by the response history)
METHOD
Participants and design
There were 440 students from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the
University of Groningen, who received a digital questionnaire about the course evaluations of this faculty. The students were randomly assigned to the questionnaire with a moral appeal in it or the questionnaire without a moral appeal in it. Thirty-two participants (70% males and 30% females, Mage = 21.5 years. SDage = 2.66)
responded to the questionnaire without a moral appeal in it and thirty-seven participants (69% males and 31% females, Mage = 21.5 years. SDage = 2.67) responded to the questionnaire with a moral appeal in it (response rate = 15.7%). Independent variables
were response history (measured) and the manipulation of the moral appeal (presence of a moral appeal versus absence of a moral appeal).
Procedure
At the end of semester 2.1 of the year 2011/2012 the students from the Faculty of Economics and Business received an invitation email to fill out the course evaluations. This email contained a link to the evaluations and a specific message, some with a moral appeal in it and others without.
Participants who received the email with a moral appeal in it read the following invitation message:
‘We would like to invite you to fill out the course evaluations of semester 2.1. Students
have a joint responsibility for improving the quality of education. An important way to achieve this is by filling out the course evaluations. The more students evaluate the courses that they have followed, the better picture we get of the quality of education and the more tools the faculty has for improving it. If you complete the course evaluations, you emphasize the Faculty’s values, and contribute to the education improvement program. You also do something for the students who come after you, as your predecessors have done for you. Besides this, you do something in return for the education that the faculty has provided for you. The faculty thus counts on students feeling responsible for filling out the evaluations. Filling out the questionnaire will only take a few minutes per course. The course evaluation is open until Monday May 14th. Your answers will be treated anonymously’.
Participants who received the email without a moral appeal in it read the following invitation message:
‘We would like to invite you to fill out the course evaluations of semester 2.1. Filling out
the questionnaire will only take a few minutes per course. The course evaluation is open until Monday May 14th. Your answers will be treated anonymously’.
invitation email. Regardless of what students answered to these questions, they were shown the message from the invitation email again and were asked to read it well before they proceeded with the questionnaire. Students were then asked to answer some questions about this message in their invitation email. This was followed by a manipulation check in order to find out whether students found the message in their invitation email an appeal to their morality. Subsequently their response history and current response rate were measured, as well as their degree of reactance and self-affirmation. After answering these questions the students were provided with a textbox to leave their comments and they were thanked for filling out the questionnaire.
Measures and manipulations
Manipulation check. The manipulation check consisted of two items. Participants
were asked whether they experienced the message as an appeal to their morality and whether the message aimed to call upon their sense of morality (α = .78). Both items were rated on a seven-point answering scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). Moral appeal. The presence of a moral appeal was manipulated by the researchers.
Students were randomly assigned to the email with a moral appeal in it (coded as 1) or the email without a moral appeal in it (coded as -1).
Response history. To measure the response history of the students, they were asked
to indicate on a five-point answering scale (1 = never, 5 = always) to what extent they had filled out the course evaluations in the past.
Response rate. The response rate of the students was measured by asking the students to
indicate on a three-point answering scale (1 = no, 2 = partly, 3 = yes) whether they had filled out the course evaluations this time.
Self-affirmation. Self-affirmation was measured by two items on a seven-point
answering scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The items started with “After receiving and reading this invitation email to fill out the course evaluations…” and finished with … my believe of being a moral person was strengthened and … I felt good about myself. The average of these two items was calculated to compute the degree of self-affirmation (α = .64).
Reactance. The degree of reactance was measured by eight items on a seven-point
… tried to make a decision for me …tried to manipulate me … tried to pressure me”. The average of these eight items was calculated to compute the degree of reactance (α = .95).
RESULTS
Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations and correlations of all the variables included in the current research.
An independent t-test was conducted in order to check whether students found the message in their invitation email an appeal to their morality. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (presence of a moral appeal versus absence of a moral appeal), t(38) = -2.23, p = .03, α = .05. Students who received the message with a moral appeal in it scored higher on the extent to which they found the message in their invitation email an appeal to their morality (M = 4.75, SD = 1.12) than students who received the message without a moral appeal in it (M = 3.93, SD = 1.11). Based on this it could be concluded that the manipulation was successful.
TABLE 1
Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD) and correlations of the research variables
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 1 Moral Appeal .00 1.01 2 Response History .15 .88 .04 3 Response Rate 2.60 .81 -.13 .62** 4 Reactance 2.87 1.33 .38** .11 .05 5 Self-affirmation 3.44 .98 .33* -.07 .07 .13 *
Correlation is significant at the .05 level
**
Correlation is significant at the .01 level
Hypothesis testing
evaluations in the past and that the presence of a moral appeal will increase the response rate of students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past.
A linear regression was performed to test this hypothesis. In step 1, moral appeal and the response history (standardized) were entered. In step 2, the interaction term between moral appeal and response history was entered. The results of this analysis are presented in Table 2.
TABLE 2
Results of linear regression on response behavior as a function of the response history as a moderator and the presence of a moral appeal
Variables
Step 1 Step 2
B B
Moral Appeal -.12 -.12
Response History .58* .59*
Presence of Moral Appeal x Response History -.02
R2 .41 .41
Δ R2
.41 .00
* p<.05
The table shows that in step 1 there was no significant main effect of the presence of a moral appeal on a student’s current response rate (B = -.12, p = .25). However, there was a significant effect of a student’s response history to his or her response rate (B = .58, p = .00). This means that the degree to which students filled out the course evaluations in the past is of influence on their current fill out behaviour. Because it is a positive relation, it can be concluded that students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past are more likely to fill out the course evaluations this time compared to students who hardly filled out the course evaluations in the past. When the interaction was entered in step 2, there was again no significant main effect of the presence of a moral appeal on a student’s current response rate (B = -.12, p = .27). There was still a significant effect of the response history to a student’s response rate (B = .59,
was not significant (B = -.02, p = .87, ∆R2 = .00, p = .87). Based on the results from this analysis, the hypothesis cannot be supported.
Reactance
First an independent t-test was conducted to investigate whether the presence of a moral appeal resulted in feelings of reactance from students against the message they received. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (presence of a moral appeal versus absence of a moral appeal), t(44) = -2.83, p = .01, α = .05). Students who received the message with a moral appeal in it felt more reactance (M
= 3.33, SD = 1.45) than students who received the message without a moral appeal in it (M = 2.33, SD = .89).
In order to test whether the relation between the presence of a moral appeal and student’s feelings of reactance was moderated by student’s response history, a linear regression was performed. A distinction was made between students who frequently filled out the course evaluations and students who hardly filled out the course evaluations. In step 1, moral appeal and the response history (standardized) were entered. In step 2, the interaction term between moral appeal and response history was entered. The results of this analysis are presented in Table 3.
TABLE 3
Results of linear regression on student’s feelings of reactance as a function of the response history as a moderator and the presence of a moral appeal
Variables
Step 1 Step 2
B B
Moral Appeal .41* .44*
Response History .30 .43
Presence of Moral Appeal x Response History -.28
R2 .16 .17
Δ R2
.16 .01
* p<.05
received a moral appeal this led to more feelings of reactance compared to students who did not receive a moral appeal. However, there was not a significant effect of a student’s response history to his or her feelings of reactance (B = .30, p = .20). This means that whether students hardly or frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past was not of influence on their feelings of reactance. When the interaction was entered in step 2, there was again a significant main effect of the presence of a moral appeal on student’s feelings of reactance (B = .44, p = .03). However, there was still no significant effect of the response history to his or her feelings of reactance (B = .43, p = .14). The interaction between the presence of a moral appeal and the response history was not significant (B = -.28, p = .28, ∆R2 = .01, p = .28). Based on these results it can be concluded that the presence of a moral appeal leads to more feelings of reactance among students, but this relation is not moderated by student’s response history. Thus, whether students hardly or frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past is not of influence on their feelings of reactance.
Self-affirmation
To test whether self-affirmation was of influence when students received the email with a moral appeal in it or the email without a moral appeal in it, first an independent t-test was conducted. The t-t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (presence of a moral appeal versus absence of a moral appeal), t(44) = -2.30,
p = .03, α = .05). Students who received the email with a moral appeal in it felt a greater
extent of self-affirmation (M = 3.74, SD = 1.07) than students who received the email without a moral appeal in it (M = 3.10, SD = .76).
TABLE 4
Results of linear regression on student’s feelings of self-affirmation as a function of the response history as a moderator and the presence of a moral appeal
Variables Step 1 Step 2
B B
Moral Appeal .32** .33**
Response History .09 .11
Presence of Moral Appeal x Response History -.04
R2 .10 .10 Δ R2 .10 .00 * p<.05 ** p<.10
DISCUSSION
Findings
This research intended to test whether the use of a moral appeal could influence the responses to the course evaluations at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. It was hypothesized that the presence of a moral appeal would decrease the response rate of students who hardly filled out the course evaluations in the past and the presence of a moral appeal would increase the response rate of students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past.
This was studied by means of a field experiment in which the presence of a moral appeal was manipulated. The results showed that the presence of a moral appeal did not directly lead to higher responses of students to the course evaluations. It was also found that this relation was not moderated by student’s earlier fill out behavior. However, a relation between student’s earlier fill out behavior and their current fill out behavior existed. Students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past were more likely to fill out the course evaluations this time compared to students who hardly filled out the course evaluations in the past. Additional measures in this study found that students who received a moral appeal developed more feelings of self-affirmation and feelings of reactance compared to students who did not receive a moral appeal. These feelings were not stronger for students who frequently filled out the course evaluations in the past compared to students who hardly filled out the course evaluations in the past.
have the intended effect on people’s attitudes. However, the manipulation check was successful, which indicates that students who received the message with a moral appeal in it did see this as an appeal to their morality. If this is not a possible explanation for not finding support for this relation, maybe our theory should be questioned. According to the theory of self-affirmation, people have a continuous motivation to maintain or obtain a positive self-image (Steele, 1988). When students receive a moral appeal which affirms their (earlier) behavior, their positive self-image will be maintained and they will be more likely to fill out the course evaluations. However, according to the theory of licensing, preferences among alternatives can be affected systematically by people’s prior actions. Engaging in or merely committing to a virtuous act can lead to an increase in a positive self-concept, which decreases the negative self-attributions associated with another action and thus increases its choice likelihood (Khan and Dhar, 2006). When students receive a moral appeal which increases their positive self-concept, their negative self-attributions associated with not filling out the course evaluations decrease and thus it is more likely that they will not fill out the evaluations. These theories of self-affirmation and licensing can override each other. On the one hand, the presence of a moral appeal might affirm students in their (earlier) behavior with the result that they are more likely to fill out the course evaluations this time. On the other hand, students might refrain from filling out the course evaluations this time, because they feel liberated about filling out the course evaluations earlier. This might be an explanation for not finding support for the hypothesis.
Limitations
to complete it. This may lead to incomplete results and may be a cause for rejection of the hypothesis. Important for future research is that only the variables that have to be measured should be included in the questionnaire and that the variables that are not relevant for the research should be excluded. Another cause of the small sample size might be the large number of different versions of the questionnaire. Respondents were divided over the different versions, resulting in a limited number of respondents per version. For future research it is recommended to reduce the number of different versions. This could result in more respondents per version and thus in a better representation of all the students at the faculty.
At the beginning of the questionnaire the students had to fill out their student number. It was stated that this would only be used for linking some demographic variables needed for the research and not for other purposes and that their anonymity was guaranteed. However, by asking the students to fill out their student number it may be that the students developed any doubts towards their anonymity. This leads us to another limitation; giving socially desirable answers. Even though the questionnaire was anonymous, it is possible that the students gave socially desirable answers because they were still afraid that their anonymity could not be guaranteed. An example here is the question to what extent students filled out the course evaluations in the past. Students who never or rarely filled out the course evaluations in the past might have answered that they often filled out the course evaluations. Such answers can have a negative influence on the research and can lead to ‘wrong’ results and no support for the hypothesis. In those situations it is not measured what is supposed to be measured (validity) and this can lead to misinterpretations. When more research is done about this subject, this should be taken into account.
Future research
this relation for the responses at the course evaluations. For future research it might be interesting to take the theory of licensing into account. This may lead to other insights and may give an explanation why a moral appeal did not lead to higher responses of students to the course evaluations.
The second finding that may be studied more thoroughly is that student’s earlier fill out behavior to the course evaluations was not of influence on the relation between a moral appeal and their current response behavior. For future research it might be interesting to investigate if there may be other variables that can act as a moderator. For example, the number of years a student has been studying. A student, who is studying for a long time, may refrain from filling out the course evaluations this time, because he thinks this is the responsibility of students who are in their first years.
Practical implications
The results of this study have some practical implications for the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen, which is dealing with the problem of nonresponses to their course evaluations. First, based on the findings of this study, they should realize that the use of a moral appeal is not a way to increase student’s responses to the course evaluations. This is because a moral appeal does not directly lead to higher responses of the students to the course evaluations.
Second, it is important for the faculty to know that the presence of a moral appeal and feelings of self-affirmation and feelings of reactance are related, which may affect student’s responses to the course evaluations. If students receive a moral appeal which states that it is a moral thing to fill out the course evaluations, they may feel this as an affirmation of their (earlier) behavior and their positive self-image will be maintained. However, a moral appeal can also lead to reactance and that is an important aspect for the faculty to take into account. When students receive a moral appeal they may feel this as threatening and subsequently they may become irritated or angry. This may have an adverse effect on student’s behavior, with the result that they will not fill out the course evaluations. The faculty should keep this in mind when they are doing research about moral appeals and the course evaluations.
Conclusion
REFERENCES
Balliet, D. (2010) Communication and cooperation in social dilemmas: A meta- analytic review. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 54(1): 39-57
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C. and Vohs, K.D. (2001) Bad is stronger than good. Reviews of General Psychology, 5: 323-370
Beniers (2009) Cultural differences in television advertising (3)
Cabantous, L. and Gond, J-P. (2011) Rational decision making as performative praxis: explaining rationality’s ternel retour. Organization Science, 22(3): 573- 586
Colman, A.M., Pulford, B.D. (2012) Problems and pseudo-problems in understanding cooperation in social dilemmas. Psychological Inquiry, 23(1): 39-47
Cubitt, R., Drouvelis, M., Gächter, S. and Kabalin, R. (2011) Moral judgments in social dilemmas: How bad is free riding? Journal of Public Economics,
95(3/4): 253-264
Dawes, R. and Messick, D.M. (2000) Social Dilemmas. International Journal of
Psychology, 35(2): 111-116
Donnell, A.J., Thomas, A., Buboltz Jr. and Walter, C. (2001) Psychological reactance: Factor structure and internal consistency of the questionnaire for the measurement of psychological reactance. Journal of Social Psychology,
141(5): 679-687
Epton, T. and Harris, P.R. (2008) Self-affirmation promotes health behavior change.
Feenstra, H. and Le Rütte, M. (2008) Handboek kwaliteitszorg onderwijs FEB. Een integraal kwaliteitszorgsysteem voor het onderwijs binnen de faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde.
Frey, B.S. and Torgler, B. (2006) Tax morale and conditional cooperation. Berkeley
Program in Law and Economics: 1-41
Jacks, J.Z. and O’Brien, M.E. (2004) Decreasing resistance by affirming the self. In: E.S.K.J.A. Linn (Ed.): Resistance and persuasion
Khan, U. and Dhar, R. (2006) Licensing effect in consumer choice. Journal of
Marketing Research, 43(2): 259-266
Lessne, G. and Venkatesan, M. (1989) Reactance Theory in Consumer Research: The past, the present and future. Advances in Consumer Research, 16(1): 76-78
Mazis, M.B., Settle, R.B. and Leslie, D.C. (1973) Elimination of phosphate detergents and psychological reactance. Journal of Marketing Research (JMR),
10(4): 390-395
Schmeichel, B. and Vohs, K. (2009) Self-affirmation and self-control: Affirming core values counteracts ego depletion. Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 96(4): 770-782
Sherman, D.K., Cohen, G.L., Nelson, L.D., Nussbaum, A.D., Bunyan, D.P. and Garcia, J. (2009) Affirmed yet unaware: Exploring the role of awareness in the process of self-affirmation. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 97(5): 745-764
University of Groningen (2011/2012) FEB Overzichtsvakrapport. Retrieved 30 June, 2012 from https://nestor.rug.nl/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_3_ 1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse %26id%3D_15166_1%26url%3D
Wenzel, M. (2007) The multiplicity of taxpayer identities and their implications for tax ethics. Law & Policy, 29(1): 31-50
Wiium, N., Aarø, L.E. and Hetland, J. (2009) Psychological reactance and adolescents’ attitudes toward tobacco-control measures. Journal of Applied
Social Psychology, 39(7): 1718-1738
