Kinder to the environment: A game-theoretic approach to green trade-offs (Add-on Studies 1 and 2)

Last registered on August 06, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Kinder to the environment: A game-theoretic approach to green trade-offs (Add-on Studies 1 and 2)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013995
Initial registration date
August 01, 2024

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
August 06, 2024, 3:46 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Swee Kiat Tay
Affiliation
National University of Singapore
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ching Leong
PI Affiliation
National University of Singapore
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PI Name
Sumit Agarwal
PI Affiliation
National University of Singapore
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-08-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Environment & Energy, Lab
Additional Keywords
Online experiment, Dishonesty
JEL code(s)
C90
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We conduct two coin-toss experiments (Add-on Studies 1 and 2) with a representative target sample of 5,000 participants each, using Dynata’s online panel. Each participant is randomly assigned to a pair of entities and instructed to toss a coin twice. Participants are asked to report the results of their coin tosses to determine the entity that will receive a USD 5 reward (they can choose to lie). Our main aims are to examine (1) whether people would act dishonestly for one entity instead of another in each trade-off context (e.g., Will people act dishonesty to benefit themselves at the expense of the environment?) (hypotheses about specific trade-off contexts), (2) whether people’s dishonesty to benefit a given entity depends on trade-off context (e.g., Will people act dishonestly to benefit themselves more if it is at the expense of a stranger than if it is at the expense of a random stranger?) (hypotheses across trade-off contexts), and (3) whether people would act less dishonestly when given the option to toss a coin either in private or on a platform where they may be monitored (Add-on Study 2) than when instructed to toss a coin in private (Add-on Study 1).
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Agarwal, Sumit, Ching Leong and Swee Kiat Tay. 2024. "Kinder to the environment: A game-theoretic approach to green trade-offs (Add-on Studies 1 and 2)." AEA RCT Registry. August 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13995-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-08-01
Intervention End Date
2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Participants’ reported results of their coin tosses, and consequently, the allocation of USD 5 to either entity of their assigned pair (i.e., in the self–environment entity pair condition, the outcome variable is whether self or the environment won the USD 5).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Both Add-on Study 1 and 2 have a 5 (entity pair) x 2 (probability split) design (for a total of 10 trade-off contexts).

Participants are randomly assigned to one of five entity pair conditions for which their responses determine which entity a USD 5 reward is allocated to: (1) self–environment, (2) environment–stranger, (3) self–charity, (4) charity–stranger, and (5) self–stranger. Each entity pair condition is further divided into two probability split conditions, one where the expected probability of winning the USD 5 is 25% for the first entity in the pair (and thus, 75% for the second entity), and another where the expected probability of winning is 25% for the second entity in the pair.

Add-on Study 1 instructs participants to toss the coin in private, while Add-on Study 2 gives participants the option to toss the coin either in private or on a platform where they may be monitored.

Participants in all studies and conditions are instructed to toss a coin twice and are told that a USD 5 reward will be given to one of two entities depending on the coin toss results. Participants are told that landing the coin on Heads (or Tails for half of the participants) on both coin tosses would result in one entity winning the reward (expected probability is 25%), while all other outcomes would result in the other entity winning the reward (expected probability is 75%).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomisation procedure is scripted by Dynata.
Randomization Unit
For each of the 10 identified countries, randomisation into the 10 conditions is at the individual-level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
5,000 individuals for each of Add-on Studies 1 and 2. Due to Dynata’s data collection method, 10-15% more participants may be collected.
Sample size: planned number of observations
5,000 individuals for each of Add-on Studies 1 and 2, 10-15% more participants may be collected.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
For each of Add-on Studies 1 and 2, sample size is at least 50 for each of the 10 conditions.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For a specified alpha level of .05 (two-tailed), power of .95, and sample size of 500 (for each trade-off context), a deviation from 25% (i.e., expected probability of winning) of at least 7.3 percentage points can be detected (computed using G*Power 3.1.9.7 sensitivity power analysis for difference from constant proportion binomial test).
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Game Theoretic Model of Environmental Behaviour (GMEB)
IRB Approval Date
2024-08-01
IRB Approval Number
NUS-IRB-2023-368
Analysis Plan

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