Peer Pressure: Experimental Evidence from Restroom Behavior

Cardinale Lagomarsino, B., Gutman, M., Freira, L., Lanzalot, M. L., Lauletta, M., Malchik, L. E., Montano Campos, F., Pacini, B., Rossi, M. A. and Valencia, C. (2017), Peer Pressure: Experimental Evidence from Restroom Behavior. Econ Inq, 55: 1579–1584. doi:10.1111/ecin.12437

Abstract: We provide experimental evidence on the effect of peer pressure on individual behavior. Specifically, we study the effect of being exposed to an observer in a public restroom on handwashing and urinal flushing behavior. Our estimates show that being exposed to an observer increases the probability of handwashing by 13 percentage points and the probability of urinal flushing by 15 percentage points. Given that handwashing and urinal flushing have social benefits that exceed individual benefits, our findings provide support for peer pressure as an additional way of addressing the social suboptimality arising from externalities.

JEL: C91, C93