Media negativity bias and tax compliance: experimental evidence

Fisar, Milos, Reggiani, Tommaso ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3134-1049, Sabatini, Fabio and Spalek, Jiri 2022. Media negativity bias and tax compliance: experimental evidence. International Tax and Public Finance 29 , pp. 1160-1212. 10.1007/s10797-021-09706-w

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Abstract

We study the impact of the media negativity bias on tax compliance. Through a framed laboratory experiment, we assess how the exposure to biased news about government action affects compliance in a repeated taxation game. Subjects treated with positive news are significantly more compliant than the control group. Instead, the exposure to negative news does not prompt any significant reaction compared to the neutral condition, suggesting that participants may perceive the media negativity bias in the selection and tonality of news as the norm rather than the exception. Overall, our results suggest that biased news provision is a constant source of psychological priming and plays a vital role in taxpayers’ compliance decisions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0927-5940
Funders:	Czech Science Foundation (Project No. GA17-00496S)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	22 November 2021
Date of Acceptance:	28 September 2021
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 03:51
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/145556

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