Media Coverage of Manager Behavior during the Financial Crisis and its Effect on People’s Reciprocity

Introduction. The financial crisis has led to an increase in media coverage of egoistic manager behavior (e.g., bonus claims despite bank insolvency). The question arises whether media coverage about manager behavior affects pro-social behavior. Based on social judgement theory (Sherif & Hovland, 1961), suggesting that a stimulus provokes assimilation (i.e. stimulus conform behavior) when a stimulus is moderate, whereas contrast effects (i.e. stimulus opposed behavior) occur, when the stimulus is more extreme, we hypothesize that media coverage of extreme egoistic (altruistic) behavior increases (decreases) pro-social behavior. Method. To test our hypotheses we designed three between-subject manipulation conditions based on original online newspaper claims for three experimental groups. A manipulation-check (N=98) confirmed our prior assignment of articles covering egoistic (GE) or altruistic (GA) behavior (or neither nor, GC). First, participants read ten articles. Then, as dependent variable we focused on pro-social behavior which has been named as the basis for probably all social and ethical interactions in civilizations, namely reciprocity (Axelrod, 1984). To test reciprocity we applied an experiment (Berg et al., 1995). Here the trustee is able to behave reciprocal towards another participant who has shown trust towards the trustee beforehand, by assigning money to his/her account. The more money is sent back by the trustee, the higher is his/her reciprocity. Results. First analyses (N=61) indicate no overall effect of the manipulation, F(2,59)=0.34, p=.71. However, a significant interaction was found between gender and manipulation, F(2,55)=5.35, p<.01. While men were not significantly affected by the manipulations, women showed most reciprocity in the GE, less reciprocity in the GA, and least reciprocity in the GC. Discussion. Our results suggest that, other than the expected, only women are affected by our manipulation. This may support research, that women’s behavior is more context dependent (Croson et al., 2009). As hypothesized a contrast effect is shown in the GE, however assimilation is shown in the GA. This effect may be caused through the fact that the stimulus content in the GA is norm conform, while the content in GE is not. However, further examination is needed to identify the mechanisms behind this effect.

Ansprechpartner: Linn Viktoria Rampl

Projektbeginn: 2009
Projektende: 2011

M.A. Linn Viktoria Rampl, Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Peter Kenning

Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen
Lehrstuhl für Marketing (2007 bis 2014)

Am Seemooser Horn 20
88045 Friedrichshafen

Telefon: +49 7541 6009-1200
Fax: +49 7541 6009-1299
Email: sabine.marx@zu.de
http://www.zeppelin-university.de/marketing

investment game, media reception, egoism, altruism, financial crisis, manager behavior, reciprocity

• Rampl, Linn, Kenning, Peter: Media Coverage of Manager Behavior during the Financial Crisis and its Effect on People’s Reciprocity, 2011 (7th Conference of the Media Psychology Division of the German Psychological Association. Bremen, Jacobs University).