Lying in Reciprocal Appraisals

Last registered on September 15, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Lying in Reciprocal Appraisals
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011281
Initial registration date
September 08, 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
September 15, 2023, 8:53 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Cyprus

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Cyprus
PI Affiliation
University of Cyprus
PI Affiliation
University of Cyprus

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-09-01
End date
2023-12-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In various economic situations, people assess others and are often willing to lie to benefit other individuals. This could be due to pure altruism or reciprocity, that is to say, people lie for others hoping the others will pay them back in the future. This can be problematic in settings such as science, where peer review systems are considered the cornerstone of research assessment. While peer review is nominally anonymous, in practice anonymity is very hard to preserve, especially in relatively small domains. We examine the existence and magnitude of such a “reciprocal lying” effect.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Li, Lunzheng et al. 2023. "Lying in Reciprocal Appraisals." AEA RCT Registry. September 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11281-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
There are two interventions, hypothesized to lead to varying levels of dishonesty. The main intervention (captured by the formal model of reciprocity) concerns the timing of play (simultaneous or reciprocal). The secondary intervention concerns the 'grouping', namely whether participants are placed together in groups that assess each other or not.
Intervention (Hidden)
Our formal model suggests that in a setting where two players could potentially lie (in their report) to benefit the person they are matched with (the other player), knowledge of the other player's report at the time of one's own reporting is relevant. Moreover, we hypothesize that the sense of belonging to a group of persons that mutually assesses each other may trigger feelings of belonging to a group, which may affect behavior. We implement a modified 2 by 2 design: (Simultaneous vs. Sequential Moves) and (Reciprocal vs. Non-reciprocal), where 'reciprocal' captures matching in pairs with reciprocal assessment.

In the simultaneous setting, players make decisions at the same time. In the sequential setting, one player makes a decision first and the other player makes a decision after observing the first player's decision. In the reciprocal setting, players are paired in groups of two, and they know that their decisions affect each other. In the non-reciprocal setting, players are not paired, and they know that their decision could affect someone, but that someone's decision wouldn't affect them.
Intervention Start Date
2023-09-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome will be the distribution of reports of the rolls of the dice, which will be compared to the expected distribution stemming from a series of unbiased rolls of the dice. This distribution of reports will be also compared across experimental conditions. Differences in the distribution will also be measured focusing on means and the percentages attributed to high reports (4s and 5s). The primary hypotheses concern comparisons between Control Condition 1 and Treatment 1, corresponding to the predictions of our formal model.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The main hypothesis of our study concerns differences across the reported distributions of participants in Control Condition 1 and the first movers in Treatment 1, as per the predictions of our formal model.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Measures of the distribution of the reports of the dice rolls (as in the discussion of primary outcomes above), but focusing on the ancillary conditions of our experiments, namely Control Condition 2 and Treatment 2.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Our ancillary hypotheses are that belonging to a group matters for reporting behavior (reporting behavior across the two control conditions differs) and that 'generalized reciprocity' matters in that reporting behavior of 'B players' in Treatment 2 will depend on the reports they received from 'A players'.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is based on Fischbacher and Föllmi-Heusi's (2013) die-rolling paradigm. Participants are instructed to roll a dice and report the result, which determines the payments of other participants. There will be four experimental conditions, all of which shall be one-shot. The experiments will be conducted online using a widely used platform.
Experimental Design Details
The four experimental conditions are as follows:

Simultaneous Non-reciprocal: in a large group, everyone observes a dice-roll and reports a number (based on that roll) that determines someone else’s payoff. Participants do not know who this “someone else” is. They do know that this “someone else” is not the person who reports for them.

Simultaneous and Reciprocal: Subjects are randomly paired into groups of two. In a group with subject A and subject B, A observes a dice-roll and reports a number that determines B’s payoff, and in the meantime, B observes another dice-roll and reports a number that determines A’s payoff. Participants know this matching. Both of them report for the other person before observing the number reported for them, i.e., they move simultaneously.

Sequential and Reciprocal: Subjects are randomly paired into groups of two. In a group with subject A and subject B, A is the first mover, observing a dice-roll and reporting a number that determines B’s payoff. The second mover B observes A’s report, as well as a dice-roll and then reports a number determining A's payoffs.

Sequential and Non-Reciprocal (Generalized-Reciprocal): Subjects are randomly paired into groups of three, with subjects A, B and C. A is the first mover, observing a dice-roll and reporting a number that determines B’s payoff. Second mover B observes A’s report, as well as a dice-roll and then reports a number for C.
Randomization Method
Randomization performed by online participant pool service provider (Prolific).
Randomization Unit
Individual participant
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
1050 online participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control Condition 1(Simultaneous Non-reciprocal): 150 individuals
Control Condition 2 (Simultaneous and Reciprocal): 150 individuals
Treatment 1 (Sequential and Reciprocal): 300 individuals
Treatment 2 (Sequential and Non-Reciprocal): 450 individuals
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
SEE ATTACHED FILE
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Cyprus National Bioethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2023-04-06
IRB Approval Number
CNBC DECISION#2023.01.104

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