Bribery Game in Nigeria

In Lagos, we conducted a household-level survey experiment using an embedded bribery game. Participants in the survey were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of several condition groups. According to their grouping, each participant in the condition groups read or heard a different message. After the message, respondents across groups answered the same questions about their perceptions of corruption in society, their willingness to report or protest corruption, and their interest in joining an anti-corruption organisation.

Participants were also asked to participate in an exercise on the tablet that allowed them to earn money by completing a task and then were asked to pay a bribe to receive the money they had earned. The respondents had the option to refuse to pay or pay the requested bribe.

The data were analysed quantitatively using a mixture of difference in means testing, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. This analysis was complemented by interviews and qualitative studies in Lagos.

SOAS-ACE is currently undertaking research in Bangladesh and Nigeria, including in the education, health and power sectors, as well as on successful collective action that overthrew a corrupt autocracy. Moving beyond pure research, we are also monitoring the implementation of anti-corruption strategies our research has recommended, such as a strategy to reduce pharmaceutical companies’ overpricing of medicines.

Our partners on this project were Nic Cheeseman and Caryn Peiffer (University of Birmingham).