Risk Aversion, Gender and Leadership Trust

Last registered on March 30, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Risk Aversion, Gender and Leadership Trust
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011149
Initial registration date
March 27, 2023

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
March 30, 2023, 3:38 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Spain
Region
Online

Primary Investigator

Name
Sayantani Chakravarty
Affiliation
ESADE Business School
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-03-27
End date
2023-04-15
Keywords
Behavior, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
J16, J18, C91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This paper examines the affect of risk preference of individuals on trust in leadership, mediated by perceptions of leadership traits demonstrated in a leader´s speech, given gender stereotypes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chakravarty, Sayantani. 2023. "Risk Aversion, Gender and Leadership Trust." AEA RCT Registry. March 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11149-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
An online experimental survey will be conducted on Prolific by asking participants to rank 5 hypothetical speeches, where the gender for each speech is randomly allotted between participants. Additionally, the speeches vary in their content characteristics.
Intervention Start Date
2023-03-27
Intervention End Date
2023-04-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Leadership Trust, Leadership Trust(Ability), Leadership Trust(Intent), Ranking of Leaders (Based on Trust)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Risk Aversion, Loss Aversion, Self-Uncertainty, Agency, Communion, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
An online experimental survey with 400 participants will be conducted using Qualtrics on Prolific. In the experiment first the participant´s risk preferences were elicited, then they are presented with 5 hypothetical speeches from potential leaders and asked to rank them according to who they would prefer as their leader. Each of the speeches is randomly allotted to a male or a female leader which is manipulated using the name of the leader. Each of the speeches is randomly allotted to a male or a female leader. Additionally, they are asked to state how much they would trust each of the leaders.
Experimental Design Details
An online experimental survey with 400 participants was conducted using Qualtrics on Prolific. In the experiment first the participant´s risk preferences were elicited, then they were presented with 5 hypothetical speeches from potential leaders on "Leadership in Challenging Times" with varying levels of Agency and Communion and asked to rank them according to who they would prefer as their leader. Each of the speeches was randomly allotted to a male or a female leader which was manipulated using the name of the leader. Additionally, they were asked to state how much they would trust each of the leaders. All participants were paid 5 pounds for completing the survey and could earn upto an additional 2.1 pounds in variable amount from lotteries.

In the experiment, three types of risk preferences were elicited: risk aversion, loss aversion and self uncertainty. To obtain a measure of risk aversion, the participants had to choose between 6 lotteries. Loss aversion was measured by asking the participants to accept or reject 6 different lotteries. Self uncertainty was measured using a 3 item scale used by Hogg and colleagues in scores of studies where the participant is asked how uncertain they feel about themselves, the future and their place in the world. The participants could answer on a likert scale from 1 to 9 with 1 signifying not very much to 9 signifying very much.

Trust in leader was measured using a modified version of the Wildman and Salas (2009) Trust/Distrust Scale of trust and distrust. Of Wildman and Salas´s (2009) 16-item scale on trust and distrust, 8 items asking participants to indicate their feelings of trust with respect to the leaders were elicited to capture the sub-dimensions of ability and intent. Responses ranged from 1 = Not at all to 6 = Very much so, with high scores indicating a high level of trust.

Additionally, with respect to individual characteristics, data was also collected on the respondent´s age, gender, Big 5 characteristics and own proclivity towards agency and communion adopted from Trapnell and Paulhus (2012).
Randomization Method
Online randomization on Qualtrics and Prolific
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
400
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The Committee for the Use of Human Subjects in Research (CUHSR)
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-14
IRB Approval Number
010/2023
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