Breaking Bad News: Economic Rationality, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Ability

Last registered on September 12, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Breaking Bad News: Economic Rationality, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Ability
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014238
Initial registration date
August 21, 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
September 12, 2024, 4:27 PM EDT

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

Last updated
September 12, 2024, 4:37 PM EDT

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Angelos Lagoudakis
Affiliation
Iowa State University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-08-23
End date
2024-10-31
Keywords
Behavior, Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
news, negativity bias, emotion regulation, cognitive ability, rationality
JEL code(s)
C80, C90, D11, D12, D84, D91, G11
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Economic theory suggests that a utility function can rationalize consumer behavior. Previous research has found no effect of alcohol consumption, circadian mismatching, cognitive load, and physical stress on economic rationality. To the best of my knowledge, no previous study has examined how emotional load and regulation can affect economic rationality. I plan to conduct an online economic experiment and exogenously vary emotional load to assess the effect of bad news on economic rationality.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lagoudakis, Angelos. 2024. "Breaking Bad News: Economic Rationality, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Ability ." AEA RCT Registry. September 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14238-1.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will exogenously vary emotional load by exposing participants to negative/neutral news (treatment/control group) while undertaking an induced budget allocation task.
Intervention Start Date
2024-08-23
Intervention End Date
2024-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Economic Rationality (e.g., Afriat’s Critical Cost Efficiency Index and other economic rationality indices)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Performance in Reasoning Tasks, Risk Preferences, First-order stochastic dominance, Response Time
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will exogenously vary emotional load by exposing participants to negative/neutral news while undertaking an induced budget allocation task.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done by a computer/software. We will use the platform Prolific. Prolific panelists will be randomly assigned to control or treatment groups. If the control and treatment sessions are released at different times in the Prolific platform, panelists who have participated in the control group will not be able to participate in the treatment group (and vice versa).
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
424 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
424 individuals (This is the number of total participants for the main study and it does not include the sample of the pilot study.)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
212 individuals control (i.e., neutral news about sports), 212 individuals treatment (i.e., negative news about mass shootings)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
0.04 (the actual difference between the groups in terms of Afriat’s Critical Cost Efficiency Index), common standard deviation=0.12, alpha=0.01, power=0.8
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Iowa State University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2023-09-27
IRB Approval Number
22-218
Analysis Plan