主题｜Topic：Fostering Curiosity and Creativity through Positive Feedbacks: Field Experimental Evidence from China
时间｜Time：10月27日（周五）15:55-16:40
地点｜Venue：文澴楼539教室｜Class Room 539，WENHUAN
主讲｜Speaker
龚亚珍博士，教授、博士生导师，中国人民大学环境学院国际交流办公室主任。2023年当选为The Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (AAERE)副理事长。
研究兴趣主要集中在两方面：其一，从行为经济学的视角、结合实地实验和问卷调查方法，研究自然资源保护和污染防护中的个体行为决策，并从社会偏好、认知约束等方面探究个体行为决策的影响机理；其二，着重在环境和健康、气候变化影响与适应、环境规制等方向上开展微观计量分析。研究成果发表在PNAS，Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Ecological Economics，Annual Review of Resource Economics，Agricultural Economics，Climatic Change、Science of the Total Environment等SSCI/SCI期刊，以及《中国环境科学》、《自然资源学报》等国内核心期刊。主持了“十四五”国家重点研发计划项目课题、“十三五”国家重点研发计划项目子课题、国家自然科学基金面上项目及国家自然科学基金青年基金项目等。
摘要｜Abstract
Fostering curiosity and creativity has become more important and urgent for economic development and education, given the latest generation of AI technology. Given limited attention paid to creativity and curiosity in exiting literature, this study investigates how creativity and curiosity may be fostered through positive feedbacks on students’ performance. We conduct a field experiment through RCTs with 356 high school students registered to a microeconomics course offered by a top business school in China. Our treatments involved different forms of feedback including personalized treatment, creativity treatment and curiosity treatment that were provided by the professor on students' responses to creativity question and curiosity question in assignments. Students’ creativity and curiosity are measured by scores given to students’ answers for free respondent questions in four assignments. Using a combination of survey and experimental data, we conduct econometric analyses on the effects of personalized treatment, curiosity treatment and creativity treatment on students’ curiosity and creativity. We do not find any significant effect of the personalized treatment on curiosity or creativity. Nevertheless, we find that creativity treatment can significantly increase students’ creativity and curiosity treatment has a significantly positive effect on students’ curiosity. Moreover, we find a significant positive spillover effect of the curiosity treatment on creativity, but not vice versa. Our heterogeneity analyses show that curiosity treatment only generate significantly positive effect on students who are single child or whose mothers are full-time mothers.
