In a field experiment, we examined whether conveying descriptive social norms (eg,“this is
what most people do”) increases charitable giving. Additionally, we examined whether
people are more likely to conform to the local norms of one's immediate environment than to
more global norms extending beyond one's local environment. University students received
a charity organization's information brochure and were asked for a monetary contribution. An
experimental descriptive norm manipulation was embedded in the brochure. We found that …