Abstract
Citizens exhibit interests for a variety of social contribution activities, including biodiversity conservation ones. However, it is difficult for one citizen to participate in multiple activities with the same effort. There are both activities in which they want to directly participate and activities in which they would be satisfied to be indirectly involved.
In this study, we introduce a scheme whereby when people contribute to the activity in which they want to directly participate, another positive action also occurs in the social contribution activity in which they want to be indirectly involved. We experimentally test how much the scheme facilitates the former behavior.
Specifically, we introduce a matching scheme whereby people post species information on a smartphone app related to biodiversity conservation, and monetary donations are made to related activities (e.g., saving endangered species, etc.). We conduct a field experiment with the app users, measure the scheme’s effect on their posting behavior during implementation, and evaluate the lasting impact after the scheme is deactivated. To examine the significance of exposures to species under the pandemic, we also measure spillover effects on physical activities and mental health.
Furthermore, we measure the behavior change effect of another scheme that gives financial rewards for posting species information and investigate which charitable matching or reward matching has a greater behavior change effect. We also examine how the relative relationship depends on the app users’ attributes and perceptions.