Bringing tax avoiders to light: moral framing and shaming in a public goods experiment

Abstract With a linear public goods game played in six different variants, this article studies two channels that might moderate social dilemmas and increase cooperation without using pecuniary incentives: moral framing shaming. We find is increased when noncontributing to good framed as morally debatable socially harmful tax avoidance, while the mere description of context has no effect. However, sanctions place, quickly deteriorates due contagion. ‘shaming’ free-riders by disclosing their misdemeanor act strong sanction, irrespective which it applied. Moralizing avoidance significantly reinforces shaming, compared with simple context.