Technology widens the access to information about our conduct. This paper aims at shedding theoretical and empirical light on induced behavioral changes in our public and private spheres. Agents misallocate efforts between the two spheres by behaving more prosocially in the public sphere than in the private sphere. More importantly, a larger public sphere leads to lower prosociality in both public and private spheres. Overall, giving a socially-valued behavior more visibility does not necessarily make it more prevalent. A laboratory experiment confirms these findings.

This paper is joint with Pak Hung Lam, Jean, and Chen Zhang.