How interpersonal closeness and social image concerns shape Pay-What-You-Want decisions independently: Evidence from two large-scale online experiments

Elisa Hofmann^*

• Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

This study explores the interplay between two key drivers of prosocial behavior: social image concerns and interpersonal closeness. By disentangling their independent and combined effects in a Pay-What-You-Want setting, we provide new insights into their roles in shaping prosocial behavior.Methods: Using a 4 x 2 between-subjects design, we disentangled the effect of interpersonal closeness between the buyers on four levels (closeness effect) and the effect of social image concerns on two levels of payment observability (audience effect). We conducted two large-scale online experiments involving voluntary payments for a hypothetical purchase of an entrance ticket to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Study 1 included 1034 participants, and Study 2 (a replication study) included 995 participants.We found that both channels, interpersonal closeness and social image concerns, independently increase voluntary payments significantly. Hence, their effects on prosocial behavior are additive.Discussion: Our findings validate prior research through high external validity, the use of innovative methodological approaches, and large non-student samples. The findings offer practical insights for structuring payment environments when implementing Pay-What-You-Want pricing strategies in market-based settings. Specifically, Pay-What-You-Want settings can be designed either to enable the observability of payments or to allow buyers to consume alongside interpersonally close others. Both approaches could independently enhance revenue.