The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Harnessing Emotional Connections to Improve Financial Decisions: Evaluating the Impact of Financial Education in Mainstream Media
Abstract
Responsible financial habits are important for economic welfare, yet it remains unclear whether they can be effectively taught. Entertainment media offers a unique and cost-effective channel of reaching millions of viewers with financial education messages that resonate. This paper uses random and symmetric encouragement methodology to study the economic impact of targeted messages on debt management and gambling scripted in a popular television soap opera in South Africa. The results show treated viewers score significantly higher on financial knowledge, are more likely to borrow from formal sources and for productive purposes, and are less likely to enter into retail credit or gamble. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of mechanisms show strong recall of messages conveyed by the lead character, which supports theories of psychological and emotional influences on decision-making.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The Scandal group were also significantly less likely to gamble.”
From Stories in Action. (2022) · cites this paper as Berg & Zia, 2017
In the citing paper
“The researchers found that the show significantly increased financial knowledge, the use of borrowing through formal channels, and borrowing for productive purposes.”
From Stories in Action. (2022) · cites this paper as Berg & Zia, 2017
Citations
Cites
Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics
Kahneman, D. (2003) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/000282803322655392 · Cited by 5,377
A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: dynamics of willpower
Metcalfe, J., & Mischel, W. (1999) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.106.1.3 · Cited by 2,931
Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Downstream Financial Behaviors
Fernandes, D., Lynch, J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2014) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2013.1849 · Cited by 2,152
Financial Literacy Among the Young
Lusardi, A., Mitchell, O. S., & Curto, V. (2009) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.1476982 · Cited by 1,804
Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Economic Outcomes
Hastings, J. S., Madrian, B. C., & Skimmyhorn, W. L. (2013) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-082312-125807 · Cited by 1,041
Heart Strings and Purse Strings: Carryover Effects of Emotions on Economic Decisions
Lerner, J. S., Small, D. A., & Loewenstein, G. (2004) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00679.x · Cited by 959
PALUCK, E. L., & GREEN, D. P. (2009) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055409990128 · Cited by 343
Research works printed but not linked: 23
- 2008, The Bold and the Beautiful. Influence of Body Size of Televised Media Models on Body Dissatisfaction and Actual Food Intake, Appetite, 51, 530, 10.1016/j.appet.2008.04.004 · DOI
- 2007, The Economic Analysis of Advertising
- 2004, Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes, American Economic Review, 94, 1558, 10.1257/0002828043052222 · DOI
- 2011, Information Disclosure, Cognitive Biases and Payday Borrowing, Journal of Finance, 66, 1865, 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2011.01698.x · DOI
- 2010, What's Advertising Content Worth? Evidence from a Consumer Credit Marketing Field Experiment, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125, 263, 10.1162/qjec.2010.125.1.263 · DOI
- 1981, Mood and Memory, American Psychologist, 36, 129, 10.1037/0003-066X.36.2.129 · DOI · Paper page
- 2014, The Minimal Impact of a Large-Scale Financial Education Program in Mexico City, Journal of Development Economics, 108, 184, 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.02.009 · DOI
- 2011, What to Say When: Advertising Appeals in Evolving Markets, Journal of Marketing Research, 38, 399
- 2011, Prices or Knowledge? What Drives Demand for Financial Services in Emerging Markets?, Journal of Finance, 66, 1933, 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2011.01696.x · DOI
- 2013, The Impacts of Mandatory Financial Education: Evidence from a Randomized Field Study, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 95, 146, 10.1016/j.jebo.2012.08.011 · DOI
- 2010, Persuasion: Empirical Evidence, Annual Review of Economics, 2, 643, 10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124309 · DOI
- 2014, Who You Train Matters: Identifying Combined Effects of Financial Education on Migrant Households, Journal of Development Economics, 109C, 39
- 2014, Keeping it Simple: Financial Literacy and Rules of Thumb, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 6, 1
- 2003, The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 815, 10.1162/00335530360698432 · DOI
- 1963, Selling as a Dyadic Relationship, American Behavioral Scientist, 6, 76, 10.1177/000276426300600922 · DOI
- 1987, Assessing the Role of Emotions as Mediators of Consumer Responses to Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 404, 10.1086/209123 · DOI
- 1987, Positive Affect, Cognitive Processes and Social Behavior
- 2009, The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124, 1057, 10.1162/qjec.2009.124.3.1057 · DOI · Paper page
- 2006, Towards an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121, 747, 10.1162/qjec.2006.121.2.747 · DOI
- 2007, Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education, Business Economics, 42, 35, 10.2145/20070104 · DOI · Paper page
- 2006, Choosing an Inferior Alternative, Psychological Science, 17, 899, 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01800.x · DOI
- 1993, The Effects of Length, Content, and Repetition on Television Commercial Effectiveness, Journal of Marketing Research, 30, 91, 10.2307/3172516 · DOI
- 1987, The Theory of Price
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Financial Education Affects Financial Knowledge and Downstream Behaviors
Kaiser, T., Lusardi, A., Menkhoff, L., & Urban, C. (2022) · Journal of Financial Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.09.022 · Cited by 508
Walsh, J., Vaida, N., Coman, A., & Fiske, S. T. (2022) · Psychological Science in the Public Interest · doi:10.1177/15291006231161337 · Cited by 26
Metadata
- Authors
- Berg, G., & Zia, B.
- Affiliations
- World Bank (US)
- Corresponding author
- Berg, Gunhild
- Zia, Bilal
- ORCID
- Zia, Bilal
- Venue
- Journal of the European Economic Association
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2017-02-14
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1025-1055
- ISSN
- 1542-4766 (ISSN-L)
- 1542-4774
- OpenAlex
- W3121730031
- Cited by
- 120
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 25.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the European Economic Association (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- financial education, entertainment media, soap opera, debt management, gambling, financial knowledge, message recall, retail credit, South Africa
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
