Feeling Unheard - The Rise of System Disbelief

Last registered on January 16, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Feeling Unheard - The Rise of System Disbelief
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010597
Initial registration date
December 16, 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
January 03, 2023, 4:31 PM EST

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

Last updated
January 16, 2024, 4:31 PM EST

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Mathilde Draeger
Affiliation
Otto-von-Guericke-Universität (OVGU) Magdeburg
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Abdolkarim Sadrieh
PI Affiliation
Otto-von-Guericke-Universität (OVGU) Magdeburg
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-12-15
End date
2025-03-31
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral, Governance, Lab, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
C91, D70, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Individuals in a group, who repeatedly experience that their group's policy selection system does not decide in their favor, may feel unheard and increasingly develop system disbelief. System disbelief (i.e. discontent with the performance of the group's policy selection system) may be detrimental to the performance and the welfare of groups in several ways. It may dramatically reduce the psychological well-being of group members, leading to a substantial decrease of their willingness to provide work effort, financial contributions, or cooperative coordination. In extreme cases, system disbelief may lead to anti-social behavior (e.g. arbitrary destruction) and foster the willingness to engage in subversion (e.g. sabotage) or insurgence (e.g. coordinated rebellion). Studying the individual characteristics and the environmental parameters that give rise to system disbelief in a laboratory experiment, our study contributes to understanding the dynamics of discontent with group decision processes and the ensuing destructive behaviors. Thus, our study may provide insights valuable for the design of group decision processes that are welfare enhancing by increasing the resilience towards system disbelief.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Draeger, Mathilde and Abdolkarim Sadrieh. 2024. "Feeling Unheard - The Rise of System Disbelief." AEA RCT Registry. January 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10597-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Subjects for the laboratory experiment are recruited electronically from the university's subject pool and are randomly assigned to one of four treatments. Preference rankings are elicited individually to be used later in group policy selection processes. The treatments consist of four different systems of group policy selection. System disbelief is elicited throughout a number of selection rounds. Socio-economic and individual attitude parameters are collected as correlates. Subjects are anonymously paid a show-up fee plus their earnings from the experiment in cash before leaving the laboratory.
**
In a second series of sessions, subjects receive positively and negatively framed messages.
Intervention Start Date
2022-12-15
Intervention End Date
2024-05-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
System disbelief (i.e. satisfaction with the group policy selection system)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
System disbelief is constructed from two self-reported items, measuring satisfaction with the group policy selection system in each round.
Additionally an incentivized system choice at the end of the experiment adds behavioral evidence to the self-reported construct.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
correlation between system satisfaction and socio-economic parameters, cultural values as well as risk and trust attitudes
**
correlation between system satisfaction and the message frames
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Subjects for the laboratory experiment are recruited electronically from the university's subject pool and are randomly assigned to one of four treatments. Preference rankings are elicited individually to be used later in group policy selection processes. The treatments consist of four different systems of group policy selection. System disbelief is elicited throughout a number of selection rounds. Socio-economic and individual attitude parameters are collected as correlates. Subjects are anonymously paid a show-up fee plus their earnings from the experiment in cash before leaving the laboratory.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Subjects are recruited electronically and randomly assigned to the treatments.
Randomization Unit
Individual subjects are assigned randomly to the treatments.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Subjects' individual preference ranking are elicited non-clustered. In the group policy selection phase, subjects are clustered in groups of 5.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan 10 to 12 clusters in each treatment, i.e. a total sample of 200 to 240 subjects in the treatments. ** In the second series of sessions, we plan 8 clusters in each treatment and each frame, i.e. an additional sample of 320 subjects.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We plan 10 to 12 clusters in each treatment, i.e. a total sample of 200 to 240 subjects in the treatments.
**
In the second series of sessions, we plan 8 clusters in each treatment and each frame, i.e. an additional sample of 320 subjects.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Gesellschaft für experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung (GfeW)
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-15
IRB Approval Number
mHp8ZMun
Analysis Plan