Groups, social context and prosocial behavior

Last registered on July 06, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Groups, social context and prosocial behavior

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010179

Initial registration date

October 14, 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

October 17, 2022, 5:33 PM EDT

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

Last updated

July 06, 2023, 7:27 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Daniel Carvajal

Affiliation

NHH Norwegian School of Economics

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2022-10-14

End date

2022-11-04

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

Identity, Context, Social distance, Prosociality

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

In this project, we study how changes in a social context, defined as the group composition of a society, affect prosocial behavior among members of that society. The project conducts an experiment that examines how making society more or less familiar to an individual, changes her redistributive allocations towards others. Moreover, we provide evidence of perceived closeness between individuals as the mechanism through which social context affects decisions.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Carvajal, Daniel. 2023. "Groups, social context and prosocial behavior." AEA RCT Registry. July 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10179-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2022-10-14

Intervention End Date

2022-11-04

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Allocation decision (Dictator game)
Closeness measure (IOS Scale)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

• Closeness measure: using the IOS Scale the respondent indicates from 1 to 7, how close do they feel towards the selected participant.
• Allocation decision: the respondent must indicate how much of their initial allocation of $40 would they give to the selected participant.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Background sociodemographic characteristics, policy views elicitation as a proxy for moral universalism, altruism measure.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

A respondent from the USA is matched with two other participants of the study (from USA, China or Canada), where all three participate in a lottery to win a total of $50. This amount is initially distributed as follows: $40 for the respondent, and $5 for each of the matched participants. Then, the respondent is told that one of the two participants will be randomly selected. Subsequently, they must indicate how much of their initial allocation of $40 would they give to the selected participant.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done by a computer.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No clustering

Sample size: planned number of observations

2800, 400 participants per treatment arm.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

There is a total of seven treatment arms. In the following it is indicated on the left, which participants are matched to the decision maker (from USA), and to the right which of these two participants was selected for the allocation decision:
T1. Participant A: USA and Participant B: USA. USA is selected.
T2. Participant A: USA and Participant B: CHN. USA is selected.
T3. Participant A: USA and Participant B: CHN. CHN is selected.
T4. Participant A: CHN and Participant B: CHN. CHN is selected.
T5. Participant A: USA and Participant B: CAN. USA is selected.
T6. Participant A: USA and Participant B: CAN. CAN is selected.
T7. Participant A: CAN and Participant B: CAN. CAN is selected.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB