Projects

This project examines how nurses’ prosocial motivation supports service performance and equitable care during Sri Lanka’s post-pandemic economic crisis. We conducted lab-in-the-field sessions with nursing professionals from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (IDH) and Mullaitivu District Hospital. Prosocial motivation was measured using a structured perception survey, while equity of care was assessed using a video-vignette task where nurses evaluated the same pneumonia symptoms presented by either a socioeconomically disadvantaged (poor) or advantaged (non-poor) patient.

Performance was measured using a real-effort envelope-stuffing task under three conditions: baseline (routine), recognition-based rewarding treatment (gold-star competition), and a prosocial mission treatment where effort contributed to fundraising for economically vulnerable families. Findings indicate high prosocial motivation among nurses, broadly equitable diagnostic/treatment recommendations across patient status, and substantially higher effort under the prosocial mission compared to baseline and recognition incentives.

Key insight: Intrinsic, mission-based prosocial motivation can outperform recognition incentives in raising effort and supporting equitable care in resource-constrained public services.

Tools: Prosocial motivation scale + video vignette + real-effort task
Equity measure: Poor vs non-poor patient presentation (same symptoms)
Effort measure: Output differences across baseline, reward, and prosocial mission conditions