Abstract:Social media are an increasingly widespread tool to influence the knowledge, awareness, attitude and behavior of individuals. Logically, the authorities have started to use social media in order to increase the knowledge and awareness on moral courage, promote a positive attitude and motivate corresponding behavior. Moral courage can be an appropriate means to prevent criminal behavior, and represents a valuable social good. However, while there are several studies on the effectiveness of social media campaigns in different public policy areas including health, there is lack of empirical evidence on the effect of social media campaigns on moral courage. This study aims to provide the theoretical foundation for such empirical work. Pursuing this aim, it proceeds as follows. First, it operationalizes the concept of moral courage. Second, it assesses the established models from the social marketing framework regarding their ability to describe the interrelationships between the preventive message, the individual, the social media environment and the act of moral courage. Third, it assesses the established measurement methods form social media marketing regarding their ability to quantify the effect of the social media campaign on moral courage. Finally, it describes the process of conducting a cost-benefit analysis of such a social media campaign.
Vita:Axel Ebers works as a research assistant for the Institute of Economic Policy at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH). He is integrated in the joint research project "Präventive digitale Sicherheitskommunikation – ein innovativer Ansatz für Kriminalprävention in sozialen Online-Medien (Prädisiko)", which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). His general research interests include applied econometrics, behavioral economics, social media, and criminal prevention. Before his engagement with the LUH, he held positions in the public and private sector. He studied economics with a major in development and environmental economics at the LUH. During that time, he did a research stay in Thailand and Cambodia in the context of the Thailand Vietnam Socio Economic Panel (TVSEP).
Prof. Dr. Stephan L. Thomsen is Professor of Economics, especially Applied Economic Policy, and Managing Director of the Center für Wirtschaftspolitische Studien (CWS). He is a Research Associate at the ZEW Mannheim, Research Fellow at the IZA Bonn, and a member of the Expert Committee for the Fifth Report on Poverty and Wealth of the German Federal Government as well as the Steering Committee of the Expert Platform Demographic Change in Saxony-Anhalt. His general research interests include empirical economic research and econometrics. Especially applied econometrics, microeconometrics, and evaluation. Furthermore, he addresses questions of labor and educational economics.
