Choice Versus State Satisfaction

Last registered on October 19, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Choice Versus State Satisfaction
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014520
Initial registration date
October 17, 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
October 19, 2024, 9:45 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
John Ifcher
Affiliation
Santa Clara University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Homa Zarghamee
PI Affiliation
Barnard College
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-10-28
End date
2024-11-01
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Choice, Subjective Well-Being, Order Effects
JEL code(s)
C91, D31, I31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In this study we contribute to the growing economic literature on the extent to which subjective well-being aligns with observed
choices in the context of a straightforward social preference experiment. This is important as prior research has shown that while
choice and predicted subjective well-being often align, individuals do not exclusively maximize subjective well-being. Further, it has
been shown that reported subjective well-being can be influenced by question order as well as other factors.

We test whether these results hold in a straightforward experimental setting. Moreover, we test a novel question: whether observed
choice is influenced by stated satisfaction. To do so, we develop an online experiment building on Diaz et al. (2023) and examine
whether stated satisfaction aligns with observed choice, and vice versa.

Specifically, participants encounter various payment-profiles; in each profile, the participant’s payment is held constant while the
payment of an anonymous, randomly-assigned other experimental participant varies. There are two main tasks. In one, participants
choose their preferred payment-profile; in the other, participants state their satisfaction with each payment-profile. To test for order
effects, we vary the order in which participants complete the two main tasks.

Reference
Diaz, L., Houser, D., Ifcher, J., & Zarghamee, H. (2023). Estimating social preferences using stated satisfaction: Novel support for
inequity aversion. European Economic Review, 155, 104436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104436
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ifcher, John and Homa Zarghamee. 2024. "Choice Versus State Satisfaction." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14520-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The experimental protocol will be as follows:

1. Informed consent

2. General instructions

3. Complete two tasks

** Task 1: Stated Satisfaction with of each of nine payment profiles
** Task 2: Choice of preferred (of nine) payment profiles

***** NOTE 1: The nine payment profiles are a list of different allocations of money between the participant and and another person
participating in this study with whom they have have been randomly paired.

***** NOTE 2: The order in which subjects complete Task 1 and Task 2 is randomized by participant

***** NOTE 3: Whether participants complete Task 1 and Task 2 as the participant stating their satisfaction and choosing their
preferred payment profile or the other person is randomized by participant.

***** NOTE 4: Thus, this is a 2X2 design with two randomizations.

4. Complete questionnaire

5. Payment within 3 days via online platform for one randomly selected Task

***** NOTE 5: Participants receive detailed instructions regarding each task prior to starting each task including the payment for the
task.

***** NOTE 6: Participant payments will include: a $2 payment for completing the study and payment for one of the two tasks they
complete. The payment task will be determined randomly by the computer.
***** NOTE 7: A PDF of the complete Qualtrics survey is attached to this application.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-10-28
Intervention End Date
2024-11-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Stated Satisfaction with of each of nine payment profiles
2. Choice of preferred (of nine) payment profiles
3. Amount that participants donate to charity from their bonus payment

***** NOTE: The nine payment profiles are a list of different allocations of money between the participant and and another person
participating in this study with whom they have have been randomly paired.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experimental protocol will be as follows:

1. Informed consent

2. General instructions

3. Complete two tasks

** Task 1: Stated Satisfaction with of each of nine payment profiles
** Task 2: Choice of preferred (of nine) payment profiles

***** NOTE 1: The nine payment profiles are a list of different allocations of money between the participant and and another person
participating in this study with whom they have have been randomly paired.

***** NOTE 2: The order in which subjects complete Task 1 and Task 2 is randomized by participant

***** NOTE 3: Whether participants complete Task 1 and Task 2 as the participant stating their satisfaction and choosing their
preferred payment profile or the other person is randomized by participant.

***** NOTE 4: Thus, this is a 2X2 design with two randomizations.

4. Complete questionnaire

5. Payment within 3 days via online platform for one randomly selected Task

***** NOTE 5: Participants receive detailed instructions regarding each task prior to starting each task including the payment for the
task.

***** NOTE 6: Participant payments will include: a $2 payment for completing the study and payment for one of the two tasks they
complete. The payment task will be determined randomly by the computer.
***** NOTE 7: A PDF of the complete Qualtrics survey is attached to this application.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization will be completed as part of the Qualtrics survey. This is a 2X2 design. Qualtrics will allocate the participants randomly between the 4 treatments (conditions).
Randomization Unit
Randomization will be done at the participant level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
800 participants; 200 in each of four treatments (conditions)
Sample size: planned number of observations
800 participants; 200 in each of four treatments (conditions)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The is only one treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Given that we do not have a baseline statistics for this research given its novelty, we conducted a few power calculations using the stata command “power”. For example, * Assuming that the proportion of participants who exhibit either RIC, IA, or SSM is 0.2, we ran the following command: “power twoprop .2, n(400) p(0.8).” The minimum detectable effect size for main outcome = 0.1227. * Assuming that the proportion of participants who exhibit either RIC, IA, or SSM is 0.35, we ran the following command: “power twoprop .35, n(400) p(0.8).” The minimum detectable effect size for main outcome = 0.1378. * Assuming that the proportion of participants who exhibit either RIC, IA, or SSM is 0.5, we ran the following command: “power twoprop .5, n(400) p(0.8).” The minimum detectable effect size for main outcome = 0.1383. Thus, we should be able to detect changes in the proportion of participants who exhibit RIC, IA, or SSM if the difference is greater than 0.14 in the third, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth step above.
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Choice v Stated Satisfaction - Qualtrics Survey
Document Type
survey_instrument
Document Description
This document contains the complete protocol for the experiment including the consent form, the general instructions, the two tasks, and the questionnaire.

This pdf presents the stated satisfaction task before the choice task. The order of these two tasks is randomized by participants.

This pdf presents Task 1 and Task 2 as the participant stating their satisfaction and choosing their preferred payment profile first and then presents Task 1 and Task 2 as participant indicating the believed stated satisfaction of the other person and the believed choice of the other person second. Participants only complete Task 1 and Task 2 once, either for themselves or for the other person. Which version they complete is randomized by participant.
File
Choice v Stated Satisfaction - Qualtrics Survey

MD5: fa9ef2fa64a1a22554e062b99a277d53

SHA1: bb27ca0a2f2bda0048cb082d1b44e2c39b180c6b

Uploaded At: October 03, 2024

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Barnard IRB Committee
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-17
IRB Approval Number
2425-1110-011
IRB Name
Santa Clara University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2024-10-02
IRB Approval Number
Protocol ID: 24-09-2246
Analysis Plan

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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