Citizenship Ceremonies as an Opportunity for Behaviour Change: A Quasi-Experiment with London Councils

Abstract

Research on pro-social and collective behaviours has tended to neglect collective occasions when citizenship is celebrated in favour of studying individual-focused interventions, such as Get Out the Vote campaigns. Citizenship ceremonies, in which new citizens are required to participate, are a timely and unique opportunity to promote civil behaviours. The research for this paper, based on a quasi-experiment comparing ceremonies in London local authorities, tested whether providing volunteering opportunities and incorporating behavioural interventions in the design of the ceremonies increased voter registration, volunteering, and blood donation intentions. The survey results show that providing volunteering opportunities increased an interest in registering to volunteer and to donate blood, while the behavioural interventions increased intention to volunteer and vote registration, with an overall significant effect of both the volunteering and behavioural interventions on summed outcomes. The research findings are a good foundation for further testing using randomized controlled trials.