How legal messaging increased TV and radio license fee compliance by 15%

Increased crime rates generally lead to more surveillance and harsher punitive laws to increase compliance. These measures are based on the idea that, before a crime is committed, the rational individual weighs the costs and benefits of their actions, and may be deterred if the costs outweigh said benefits. A limitation of this approach is that we do not always act rationally, especially when we decide to commit crimes.  

This intervention tested whether behavioral motives could be used to reduce TV and radio license fee evasion in Austria. A large-scale natural field experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a legal threat, moral appeal, and social information at increasing compliance levels. The intervention found that a legal threat that stressed  a high risk of detection was effective at improving compliance, whereas using moral appeal and social information was not.¹