RWI/WZB PROSOCIAL Workshop

The workshop is part of the Stimulating Prosocial Behavior (PROSOCIAL) project.

The PROSOCIAL project is a large collaborative project funded by Leibniz 2025-2028. Institutional partners involved are, among others, RWI Essen, University Hamburg, PIK and many expert individual researchers like Mark Andor (RWI), Andreas Lange (U Hamburg), Lorenz Goette (NUS), René Bekkers (VU Amsterdam), Steffen Huck (WZB), Isabel Thielmann (MPI), and Linus Mattauch (PIK & TU Berlin).

As part of a broader scientific project, the workshop examines how individuals can be encouraged to act in ways that benefit others and society—whether through monetary and in-kind donations, volunteering, sustainability contributions, or life-saving behaviors such as blood and organ donation.

Grounded in a unifying conceptual framework, the project aims to design and test interventions that effectively promote prosocial behavior. To this end, the workshop provides a platform to discuss findings from coordinated field experiments, theoretical models, and large-scale surveys. Key questions include: What motivates people to give? How do incentives shape charitable behavior? Why do donors sometimes prefer less effective charities? And how does public support for prosocial and sustainable policies depend on information and policy design?

The event creates a collaborative space for scholars to exchange ideas, refine interventions, and lay the groundwork for a comprehensive meta-study.

The workshop will take place on September 10th, 2025 at WZB Berlin. Participation is by invitation only. If you are interested, please contact Maja Adena (maja.adena [at] wzb.eu).

Confirmed speakers:

Nicola Lacetera (Università di Bologna)

Maja Adena (WZB Berlin & TU Berlin)

Mark Andor (RWI)

Paul Smeets (University of Amsterdam)

Sasaki Shusaku (HU Berlin)

Hande Erkut (WZB Berlin)

Jan Schmitz (Radboud University, Nijmegen)

Christian Hoenow (RWI)

Achim Hagen (HU Berlin)

René Bekkers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Leonie Matejko (RWI)

Andreas Lange (University of Hamburg)