Fairness of the crowd

Last registered on September 08, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Fairness of the crowd

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010023

Initial registration date

September 06, 2022

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

September 08, 2022, 11:27 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Norway

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Kjetil Madland

Affiliation

NHH

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Eirik André Strømland

PI Affiliation

HVL

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-09-07

End date

2022-09-16

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

fairness, social norms, conformity, peer pressure, spectator

JEL code(s)

D63

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.

Abstract

This paper studies social spillover effects in distributive decision making. In an online spectator experiment, subjects choose from a menu of alternative ways to distribute money between strangers. In a US sample, constructed to be representative of the general population with respect to age, sex and ethnicity, we test whether receiving information about the choices of a reference group influences the spectator’s decision in the current experimental setting. The reference group is a randomly drawn group of three other spectators from a previous experiment by Almås et al. (2020). Prior to treatment, we elicit subjects’ beliefs choices in the reference group.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Madland, Kjetil and Eirik André Strømland. 2022. "Fairness of the crowd." AEA RCT Registry. September 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10023-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Online experiment, recruiting stakeholders from MTurk (N=200), and impartial spectators from Prolific (N=1000). We use a sample stratified to be representative of the US population on age, sex and ethnicity.

Intervention Start Date

2022-09-07

Intervention End Date

2022-09-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The probability of distributing bonus money equally between a pair of stakeholders

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Implemented inequality

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We use data from a previously conducted study by Almås et al. (2020) as an information treatment, achieving random variation in the information that our spectators get about what others have done in the same setting. We test how this information affects fairness preferences and redistribution.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in Qualtrics

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1000 spectators
200 stakeholders

Sample size: planned number of observations

1000 spectators 200 stakeholders

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Treatment arms for spectators are randomized from the data collected by Almås et al. (2020). Expected distribution:
x=0 for 100 spectators
x=1 for 350 spectators
x=2 for 400 spectators
x=3 for 150 spectators

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Minimum detectable effect: 0.13 (i.e. 13 percentage point difference between groups) given standard deviation of 1,5 and sample of 1000.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB