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Does the nature of experience affect choice?

Last registered on October 19, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Does the nature of experience affect choice?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003355
Initial registration date
September 26, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 03, 2018, 1:32 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
October 19, 2020, 4:05 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Heidelberg University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Innsbruck
PI Affiliation
Heidelberg University

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-09-27
End date
2019-09-27
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Both strategic and natural uncertainty (risk) determine whether agents receive an economic reward in many environments. Moreover, many environments require repeated decisions. When periods are stochastically independent, do agents respond to an adverse outcome? And does it matter for their response whether the strategic or the natural risk materialized to cause the event?

We design an experimental choice situation that contains both strategic and natural uncertainty and repeat the situation once, after feedback on first-round outcomes. Observing the behavior of experimental subjects in both rounds allows us to investigate whether the experience of a zero-payoff outcome in the first choice situation affects participant's behavior in a second choice situation and whether the source of the zero-payoff matters. Payoffs are determined by joint play between the subject and a co-player in a game of chicken and by the outcome of a lottery draw. While the rounds are independent in statistical (random rematching) and payoff terms (random determination of payoff-relevant round), casual observation and evidence from cognate experiments suggests that choice behavior is likely to differ depending on whether the zero-payoff event materialized or not. This behavioral response conceivably also differs depending on whether natural or strategic uncertainty is seen as the reason for the zero-payoff event. Our experiment is designed to detect the presence and nature of such behavioral changes. Furthermore, we ask whether age, gender, or educational status can explain observed choices and changes in choices. Finally, we study whether a change in the perception of what caused the outcome mediates the effect of experience on the change in choices.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Diekert, Florian, Timo Goeschl and Christian König. 2020. "Does the nature of experience affect choice?." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3355-4.0
Former Citation
Diekert, Florian, Timo Goeschl and Christian König. 2020. "Does the nature of experience affect choice?." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3355/history/77966
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Participants are recruited through an online platform and are asked to make two payoff relevant choices as well as answer questions about their beliefs on other participant's play as well as on the outcome of an urn draw. Participants are either matched with a computer co-player or a human co-player. In the latter case, they are randomly re-matched with another co-player for their second choice.
Intervention Start Date
2018-09-27
Intervention End Date
2019-09-27

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Do participants change their choice between the first and the second round?
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We match participants with a co-player to play a game of chicken. The eventual payoff of the players depends on their play in the game and on the draw of a lottery. That is, when a "red ball" is drawn in the lottery, or when both players choose "action B" in the chicken game, they receive a payoff of zero. When a participant chooses "action A" in the chicken game, and a "green ball" is drawn in the lottery, she receives a payoff of 1 USD and when a participant chooses "action B" in the chicken game, while her co-player chooses "A", and a "green ball" is drawn in the lottery, she receives a payoff of 3 USD.

We play two rounds of this game and randomly rematch players (perfect stranger matching). After the first round, full information about the outcome of the lottery and the choice of the matched co-player is provided. Participants receiving a payoff of zero will therefore know exactly whether the event can be attributed to the unfortunate realization of the natural uncertainty, or the strategic uncertainty, or both. In round two, participants are tasked to again choose between A and B. Finally, we ask participants not only to make payoff-relevant choices, we also elicit their perceptions about the cause of the outcome. We do so at two points in time: first, after they have made their first choice but before they know the outcome, and second, after they have learned the outcome from the first round and before they make their second choice.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
900 observations per treatment (human condition or robot condition), so 1800 in total.
Sample size: planned number of observations
1800
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
900
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Updated Research Design Document

MD5: c27a064bf222b7b380c84922c56ae0f1

SHA1: 62a95887e034111378b89aad99ea161420c6ddf2

Uploaded At: October 31, 2019

Research Design Document Nature of Experience Project

MD5: 7a526f503fdc9b2ad89dc220383e56ec

SHA1: 39138a2167f1e7dcc697cd2431789ef25e6cef4e

Uploaded At: March 08, 2019

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials

Description
Results Report
Citation
Diekert, Florian, Timo Goeschl and Christian König. 2020. "Does the nature of experience affect choice?." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. 2020. "Registration Entry Title: Results Report." AEA RCT Registry. October 19 https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3355-4.0
File
NoEstudyplan_completed.pdf

MD5: 3555611d22be608ad21fdb049b66dd9f

SHA1: 57f6957eff86b53887ad6a25be9b84f04989d227

Uploaded At: October 19, 2020