I Didn’t Know Either - the Dynamics of Strategic Ignorance

Last registered on January 21, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
I Didn’t Know Either - the Dynamics of Strategic Ignorance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014367
Initial registration date
December 13, 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
December 17, 2024, 8:32 AM EST

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

Last updated
January 21, 2025, 4:24 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of California, Merced

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-12-02
End date
2025-02-28
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
An extensive literature highlights the use of willful ignorance as moral wiggle room to protect one's self-image when choosing to behave selfishly. Although the literature is highly suggestive that people care about their own, internalized self-image, people frequently compare themselves with others when evaluating their own conduct. In the context of willful ignorance, an ignorant person could claim "I am not a bad person for not knowing because there are many others who also did not know." Accordingly, the use of ignorance to mitigate guilt or shame implies different social norms, contingent upon individuals' beliefs about how others may choose to acquire undesirable information. Given the richness of our social environments and our tendency for “social learning,” it is likely the case that the degree to which we exploit moral wiggle room is a function of how we perceive others to behave, with the caveat that such beliefs may be inherently self-serving. Studying the role of beliefs about social norms offers both a broader understanding of the moral wiggle room phenomena and potential mechanisms for addressing willful ignorance. The main goal of this study is an exploration of the interaction between beliefs about social norms and the tendency to exploit ignorance for selfish gains. We present an experiment that studies norming behavior within the moral wiggle room paradigm, using a design that exogenously manipulates subjects’ prior beliefs about social norms.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hua, Tony. 2025. "I Didn’t Know Either - the Dynamics of Strategic Ignorance." AEA RCT Registry. January 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14367-1.2
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This experiment relies on information provision about the behavior of others.
Intervention Start Date
2024-12-02
Intervention End Date
2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Using the between subjects design, our main outcome of interest is the ignorance rate and elicited belief regarding the ignorance rates across the different treatment arms. Ignorance rate is calculated as a proportion of subjects within a treatment arm who did not reveal information regarding the recipient's payoffs. Elicited beliefs on ignorance will be quantified between 0 to 100 percent.

Subjects will be asked to evaluate the social appropriateness of revealing versus not revealing on a 4-point Likert scale, describing the behavior as being socially inappropriate to socially appropriate.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We may classify social appropriateness by grouping the ratings on the 4-point Likert scale into two groupings: inappropriate and appropriate and derive a ratio for the degree of overall social appropriateness.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
In addition, subjects will evaluate themselves on The Conformity Scale (TCS) followed by a questionnaire on general demographics.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We will develop a measure of social conformity using the The Conformity Scale by averaging subject's responses across the 11 questions.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment is divided into three distinct sections with 6 treatment arms in a 2 by 3 experimental design, varying conditions of whether or not subjects know that they will be playing the moral-wiggle room game and varying conditions of the low versus high ignorance norms and a control condition without any norm information.

The first section elicits subjects' beliefs about the behavior of other subjects. The second section asks subjects to participate in the moral-wiggle room game. The third section asks subjects to rate the social appropriateness of revealing and not revealing the payoff tables.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Computer randomization and balanced assignment for treatment arms
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
At least 600 online participants; higher N depends on budget constraints. 800 if including the 10% ignorance rate treatment arms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
At least 100 subjects per treatment arm; higher N depends on budget constraints
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
In line with (Dana et al. 2007), we look to discern differences of 0.2 or 80% power. For a difference of proportions for a binomial distribution, to obtain a power of 80%, a sample of 97 subjects per treatment is needed. To simplify, I aim for 100 subjects in each group in each comparison.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UC Merced Institiutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2024-09-27
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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