This dataset relates to the ESRC Citizen Contribution to Local Public Services project. It is the first of four datasets created for this project. The project sought to identify how social information could influence volunteering levels in different groups, using four different field experiments. This dataset contains information from the first field experiment which examined one form of social information - i.e. endorsement - on a large student population. The other datasets in the project (2,3,4) examine other forms of social information with different groups of people. This dataset contains information on forms of, and time contributed to, volunteering over a 7 week period for over 100,000 students from 5 UK universities randomly allocated to receive different forms of email endorsement about volunteering, or to a control email. The email endorsements were from politicians, celebrities or student peers. The dataset includes demographic data provided by student records services, and information on volunteering outcomes provided by universities and web-checking software, i.e. whether students clicked through from the email they received to find out more about volunteering, whether they registered as a volunteer, took up a volunteering placement or attended volunteer training. The dataset also includes self-reported survey data on the nature and extent of volunteering over the same 7 week time period.Citizen contributions to public services are regarded as increasingly important by researchers and policy-makers. These include volunteering to make communities better places. A core idea in recent thinking in behavioural economics and the study of collective action is that the way information is presented to citizens matters to their willingness to donate their time. This can include who makes the request, what information there is about what other people do, and what feedback people get about their volunteering and the activities of others. The research is particularly interested in whether recommendations from prominent people, such as those in the community sector and politicians, can help promote civic action. The research also examines the effect of providing feedback about other people's time contributions. The researchers want to know whether varying the form of feedback to citizens matters, and use randomized controlled trials to investigate their effects on contributions to volunteering.
Primary data were collected from an online survey of participants; secondary data were collected from participating universities' student records services and volunteering units. Population was undergraduate and postgraduate students attending universities five universities in the UK. All registered students in the 5 universities resident in their university town at the time of the study (ie not student undertaking overseas placements or on sandwich years/ placements) with were included in the sample and contacted by email, resulting in a sample of 100,974 students.
