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Last Published January 27, 2023 02:33 AM March 06, 2023 12:08 PM
Intervention (Public) The MTurk participants first practice the key-pressing task in a trial round for 10 seconds, then work on the bonus round for 5 minutes in which they may earn bonus payments. Before they start to work on the key-pressing task, they receive different information on how they will earn bonus payments depending on their assigned treatments. Their instructions read as the follows: "In this round, you will be randomly matched to another worker recruited for this study. You and your paired other worker will independently work on the task for 5 minutes. The pair of you will earn a joint bonus reward of $2 for completing this task." For participants assigned to the equal treatment, they will be paid by an equal bonus scheme, and read: "You and the other worker will each earn $1, regardless of your scores." For participants assigned to the tournament treatment, they will be paid by a tournament bonus scheme, and read: "The worker with the higher score will earn $2, the other worker will not earn any bonus." The MTurk participants first practice the key-pressing task in a trial round for 10 seconds, then work on the bonus round for 5 minutes in which they may earn bonus payments. Before they start to work on the key-pressing task, they receive different information on how they will earn bonus payments depending on their assigned treatments. Their instructions read as the follows: "In this round, you will be randomly matched to another worker recruited for this study. You and your paired other worker will independently work on the task for 5 minutes. The pair of you will earn a joint bonus reward of $2 for completing this task." For participants assigned to the equal treatment, they will be paid by an equal bonus scheme, and read: "You and the other worker will each earn $1, regardless of your scores." For participants assigned to the tournament treatment, they will be paid by a tournament bonus scheme, and read: "The worker with the higher score will earn $2, the other worker will not earn any bonus." For participants assigned to the proportional treatment, they will be paid by a proportional bonus scheme, and read: "You and the other worker will split the $2 bonus proportional to your scores."
Experimental Design (Public) MTurk participants will work on a real-effort task of alternatively pressing 'a' and 'b' on their keyboard (DellaVigna & Pope, 2018) for five minutes and will have the opportunity to earn bonus payments. They will first read the instructions of the task and have the opportunity to try the task for 10 seconds. Then, depending on the treatment group they are assigned to, they will be given different information regarding whether they need to compete for a 2 USD bonus payment. They will be answer a simple comprehension question on the expected bonus payment to make sure that they understand the bonus scheme. If they answer correctly, they will proceed to the 5-minute round of the task for bonus payments. Otherwise, they will be shown the instructions on their assigned bonus scheme again before proceeding to the task. The averages score in the equal bonus scheme (do not compete) and the tournament bonus scheme (compete) will be used in the main experiment of this project as baseline data and to construct the incentive structure for the participants in that experiment. The main experiment will be registered as "Let Them Race - the role of beliefs and fairness views in choosing incentive schemes for others". MTurk participants will work on a real-effort task of alternatively pressing 'a' and 'b' on their keyboard (DellaVigna & Pope, 2018) for five minutes and will have the opportunity to earn bonus payments. They will first read the instructions of the task and have the opportunity to try the task for 10 seconds. Then, depending on the treatment group they are assigned to, they will be given different information regarding whether they need to compete for a 2 USD bonus payment. They will be answer a simple comprehension question on the expected bonus payment to make sure that they understand the bonus scheme. If they answer correctly, they will proceed to the 5-minute round of the task for bonus payments. Otherwise, they will be shown the instructions on their assigned bonus scheme again before proceeding to the task. The averages score in the equal bonus scheme (do not compete), the proportional bonus scheme (compete for a larger share of the $2 bonus), and the tournament bonus scheme (compete for $2) will be used in the main experiment of this project as baseline data and to construct the incentive structure for the participants in that experiment. The main experiment will be registered as "Let Them Race - the role of beliefs and fairness views in choosing incentive schemes for others".
Randomization Method Participants will be assigned to different treatment groups by the sequence they enter the online experiment. The first participant will be in equal treatment, second in tournament treatment, third in equal, fourth in tournament, and etc. Participants in the same treatment group will then be matched in pairs also by their entering sequence. Participants will be assigned to different treatment groups by the sequence they enter the online experiment. The first participant will be in equal treatment, second in tournament treatment, third in equal, fourth in tournament, and etc. Participants in the same treatment group will then be matched in pairs also by their entering sequence. Participants in the proportional treatment is collected in another round. Data collection will exclude participants in the first round (equal or tournament treatments). They will be randomly matched in pairs by computer.
Planned Number of Observations 200 MTurk participants 300 MTurk participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms Around 100 in each of the equal and tournament bonus schemes Around 100 in each of the equal, proportional and tournament bonus schemes
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