The Curse of Good Intentions: Why Anticorruption Messaging Can Encourage Bribery

Awareness-raising messages feature prominently in most anticorruption strategies. Yet, there has been limited systematic research into their efficacy. There is growing concern that awareness-raising efforts may be backfiring; instead of encouraging citizens to resist corruption, they nudging them “go with the corrupt grain.” This study offers a first test effect messaging on ordinary people’s behavior. A household-level field experiment, conducted representative sample Lagos, Nigeria, used whether exposure five different about (anti)corruption influence outcome “bribery game.” We find largely fails discourage decision bribe, and some cases it makes individuals more willing pay bribe. Importantly, we also conditioned by an individual’s preexisting perceptions regarding prevalence corruption.