Museums as Policy Tools: The Behavioral Impact of Cultural Experiences

2026-06-05

AI Summary

This study investigates how museums can foster prosocial behavior toward vulnerable populations—such as refugees—through thematic curation. A randomized controlled field experiment was conducted at the Santa Maria della Scala Museum in Siena, where student participants were randomly assigned to either a care- and hospitality-themed guided tour or a standard art-focused tour, followed by an opportunity to donate to a refugee-supporting NGO. Results reveal that participants who received the thematic tour donated significantly more, with the effect particularly pronounced among female participants. This work provides the first empirical evidence that museums can function as effective instruments of behavioral public policy, demonstrating that targeted cultural experiences can meaningfully promote prosocial attitudes and actions, thereby offering cultural institutions a novel pathway to engage with pressing social issues.

Abstract

Museums can serve as policy tools when their content is purposefully curated. We designed a framed field experiment at the Santa Maria della Scala museum in Siena that leveraged the site's historical role offering care and hospitality.Student visitors randomly assigned to a tour emphasizing this function later donated more to an NGO supporting refugee than those who followed a standard artistic itinerary, with effects concentrated among female participants. These results show that thematically targeted museum experiences can measurably boost charitable behavior toward vulnerable groups, underscoring the untapped potential of cultural institutions in behavioral public policy.

Problem

• museums
• behavioral policy
• charitable behavior
• cultural institutions
• refugee support

Innovation

• museums as policy tools
• behavioral public policy
• framed field experiment
• thematic curation
• charitable behavior