Can storytelling encourage tolerance and intention to volunteer? Conveying volunteer experiences in a UK survey experiment

Storytelling from volunteers can demonstrate the voluntary contributions of others, especially when conveyed by a migrant. A story, told by someone who has recently moved from another country, can signal reciprocity and shared values, encouraging people to be more tolerant of ethnic diversity and stimulate their intentions to volunteer. To test these claims, we present results from a survey experiment of 7,815 people who were randomly assigned a video of a migrant and a non-migrant story as well as a control non-story-video condition. Both storytelling videos stimulate support for migrants having similar rights to social benefits and services as citizens already living in a state, with a higher impact of the migrant story as predicted. Other attitudes are not affected, including one negative result. Both videos reduce intention to volunteer, probably caused by attainment cognitive dissonance. Overall, videos are better placed to improve attitudes than intended behaviours.