Encouraging Uptake of Benefits with Psychological Ownership Messaging
A brief report on our quantitative research about messages that increase people's take-up of government benefits by making them feel like those benefits belong to them.
The report demonstrates that framing government benefits as something that “belongs” to eligible individuals—using psychological ownership messaging—significantly increases the likelihood of people pursuing and claiming those benefits.
This approach consistently outperformed traditional messaging strategies, resulting in 20%-128% higher engagement and uptake rates, and is recommended as a low-cost, effective method to reduce participation gaps in programs like the EITC and stimulus payments.
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