Effects of framing on reforestation concern: A lab-in-the-field experiment in rural Philippines

Abstract

This behavioral experiment examines whether framing affects environmental altruism in Mindoro, Philippines. The study looked into differences across ethnic groups, the non-farming Tagalogs and farming Mangyans, and designed a two-part donation task where the recipient is a non-government organization (NGO) reforestation project. Two treatments were considered: the giving game (GG) or the taking game (TG). In the first part of the experiment, under the giving game, respondents were asked how much they would donate to an NGO. Under the taking game, they were asked how much they would keep for themselves instead of giving to the NGO. In the second part, participants were asked what they would do if a hypothetical partner, who was either the same or from different ethnicity, donated half of the money to forest conservation. Results showed that Mangyans give more in the taking game than in the giving game. The behavior of Tagalogs is indifferent to framing.