Narratives and Valuations

Last registered on November 30, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Narratives and Valuations
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010457
Initial registration date
November 22, 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
November 30, 2022, 2:57 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
Pennsylvania

Primary Investigator

Name
Dor Morag
Affiliation
University of Pittsburgh
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
George Loewenstein
PI Affiliation
CMU
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-11-28
End date
2022-12-10
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
narratives, willingness to accept, valuations, multiple price list, experimental
JEL code(s)
D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking in a randomized field experiment to estimate the effect of narrative (compared to analytical) thinking on valuations.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Loewenstein, George and Dor Morag. 2022. "Narratives and Valuations." AEA RCT Registry. November 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10457-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Self-constructed stimuli - Participants were randomized to describe their pre-owned item differently or write an unrelated paragraph.
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-28
Intervention End Date
2022-12-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to Accept (WTA) in USD, and unwillingness to sell (refusing to sell at any offered price)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
WTA is the switching price in the MPL.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Fifteen post-MPL questions
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
After submitting their MPL choices, participants answer a set of questions regarding their item and their selling process

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
People wearing a hat are approached on campus (not knowing why) and offered to participate in a short survey. Once consent is given, participants fill out a demographics questionnaire and are randomized to describe their items differently. Finally, participants are surprisingly offered to sell their items to the experimenter, and their willingness to accept (WTA) is elicited through incentivized multiple price lists (where one decision might be randomly selected to count). Finally, participants answer 15 questions regarding their hats.
Experimental Design Details
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking by asking participants to describe their self-selected item with either a story (narrative thinking) or a list (analytical thinking). Thus, participants naturally create their stimuli like they would in real life. Note that when the description is written, participants don't know they'll be offered to sell it.
Randomization Method
Digital randomization for the treatment arms and a public lottery for the binding decision of each participant in the MPL.
Randomization Unit
The individual is the randomized unit for treatment, and the decision number (e.g., decision 28 regarding $40) is the randomized unit for the MPL lottery per participant.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
400 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 item narrative, 100 item list of attributes, 100 positive unrelated story, and 100 negative unrelated story
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Judgment and Decision-Making
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-22
IRB Approval Number
IRBSTUDY2015_00000482
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials