[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-381560-105":53,"doc-detail-381560-en":126},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":119,"head_meta":121,"extra_data":123,"updated_unix":125},105,"en","political-activists-are-not-driven-by-instrumental-motives-evidence-from-two-natural-field-experiments-january-2024","Political Activists are Not Driven by Instrumental Motives - Evidence from Two Natural Field Experiments - January 2024","","Are political activists motivated by instrumental goals such as building a political career or persuading voters? Two natural field experiments randomly informed party activists that canvassing was either effective for mobilizing voters or effective for accelerating political careers. Treatment had no impact on intended or actual canvassing behavior, even with successful manipulation checks, replication, high statistical power, unobtrusive measurement, and a natural field setting. Expert surveys indicate posterior beliefs shifted toward zero, supporting expressive motives.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":11,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/presentations/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/political-activists-are-not-driven-by-instrumental-motives-evidence-from-two-natural-field-experiments-january-2024/381560/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/political-activists-are-not-driven-by-instrumental-motives-evidence-from-two-natural-field-experiments-january-2024/381560.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Jordan Avery","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-09-24",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":76},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What instrumental motives does the study test for political activists?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"The study tests whether activists are motivated by instrumental motives: mobilizing voters or advancing their political careers through canvassing.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How were the two natural field experiments conducted?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"Study 1 randomized party activists to receive information about canvassing effectiveness for voter mobilization; Study 2 randomized activists to receive information about party leaders’ prior canvassing and career acceleration.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What do the results show about the effectiveness-focused and career-focused treatments?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"Neither treatment affected intended or actual canvassing behavior, with outcomes measured over two weeks (Study 1) and four weeks (Study 2) and found highly similar across treatment and control groups.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},381560,1792214251,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":8,"category_name":11,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":76,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":35},1099523882367,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","ECONtribute  \nDiscussion Paper No. 274  \nPolitical Activists are Not Driven by Instrumental Motives: Evidence from Two Natural Field Experiments  \nAnselm Hager Lukas Hensel Johannes Hermle Christopher Roth  \nJanuary 2024 [www.econtribute.de](www.econtribute.de)  \nFunding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under  \nGermany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2126/1-390838866 is gratefully acknowledged.  \nPolitical Activists are Not Driven by Instrumental Motives: Evidence from Two Natural Field Experiments ∗  \nAnselm Hager  \nJohannes Hermle  \nLukas Hensel  \nChristopher Roth†  \nAbstract  \nAre political activists driven by instrumental motives such as making a career in politics or mobilizing voters? We implement two natural field experiments in which party activists are randomly informed that canvassing is i) effective at mobilizing voters, or ii) effective for enhancing activists’ political careers. We find no effect of the treatmentson activists’ intended and actual canvassing behavior. The null finding holds despite a successful manipulation check and replication study, high statistical power, a natural field setting, and an unobtrusive measurement strategy. Using an expert survey, we show that the null finding shifted Bayesian posterior beliefs about the treatment’s effectiveness toward zero. The evidence thus casts doubt on two popular hypothesized instrumental drivers of political activism—voter persuasion and career concerns—and points toward expressive benefits as more plausible motives.  \n∗ The study was pre-registered at the AEA RCT registry (number 0002417) .  \n†Anselm Hager, Humboldt-Universita¨t zu Berlin, [anselm.hager@gmail.com](anselm.hager@gmail.com); Lukas Hensel, University of Oxford, [lukas.hensel@economics.ox.ac.uk](lukas.hensel@economics.ox.ac.uk); Johannes Hermle, University of California, Berkeley, [j.hermle@berkeley.edu](j.hermle@berkeley.edu); Christopher Roth, University of Cologne and ECONtribute. Roth: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy– EXC 2126/1-390838866 . The research described in this article was approved by the University of Oxford Department of Economics Research Ethics Committee, Ref No: R52651/RE004 .  \nWhat motivates citizens to become active in politics? Scholars have long contended that political engagement is partly a product of instrumental 1 considerations. While voting is hard to rationalize on instrumental grounds (Gelman, Silver and Edlin, 2012), the case is quite different for engagement in a political campaign. Here, party supporters may well be motivated by their own effect on the election, given that local races are often close. Participation in a campaign is also a quintessential means to advance one’s political career (Black 1972 , 146, Abramowitz, McGlennon and Rapoport 1983 , 1008, Fox and Lawless 2005, 653) . But, are such instrumental, outcome-oriented considerations actual drivers of political activism?  \nThis paper studies whether party activists can be motivated on instrumental grounds. We present evidence from two field experiments conducted with a major European party. Study 1 took place during a national election and explored the role of individual effectiveness. We randomized whether 1,184 party activists received true information about the effectiveness of canvassing in mobilizing voters. Study 2 took place during a state-level election and assessed the role of career ambitions. Here, we randomized whether 1,885 party activists received information that key party leaders had once been active canvassers, accelerating their political careers. Our outcomes are respondents’ intended and actual canvassing behavior, which we unobtrusively measure via the party’s canvassing app.  \nWe find that neither the treatment highlighting the effectiveness of canvassing, nor the treatment underlining that canvassing can advance one’s career affected party supporters’politic","cbCaidfZLyuaNUkY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidfZLyuaNUkY","pdf",1009619,49,"English","# Motivation\n## Instrumental vs. expressive benefits\n# Research design\n## Study 1: effectiveness for voter mobilization\n## Study 2: career advancement\n# Results\n## No treatment effects on intended or actual canvassing\n## Evidence supporting the null finding\n# Conclusions","[{\"question\":\"What instrumental motives does the study test for political activists?\",\"answer\":\"The study tests whether activists are motivated by instrumental motives: mobilizing voters or advancing their political careers through canvassing.\"},{\"question\":\"How were the two natural field experiments conducted?\",\"answer\":\"Study 1 randomized party activists to receive information about canvassing effectiveness for voter mobilization; Study 2 randomized activists to receive information about party leaders’ prior canvassing and career acceleration.\"},{\"question\":\"What do the results show about the effectiveness-focused and career-focused treatments?\",\"answer\":\"Neither treatment affected intended or actual canvassing behavior, with outcomes measured over two weeks (Study 1) and four weeks (Study 2) and found highly similar across treatment and control groups.\"}]","Political Activists are Not Driven by Instrumental Motives - Evidence from Two Natural Field Experiments - January 2024 | PDF",1790245877]