Social norms bias in the donation

Last registered on February 12, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Social norms bias in the donation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014963
Initial registration date
December 04, 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
February 12, 2025, 9:17 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
American Samoa
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Yahui Ding
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lan Yao
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Chenxi Zhang
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Chong Zhou
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Withdrawn
Start date
2024-12-08
End date
2025-02-28
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Norm, Uncertainty, Deliberation
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study examines how external factors like incentives and uncertainty influence decision-making and alignment with social norms. It considers how these elements shape motivations and the thought processes behind prosocial behaviors, aiming to provide insights into the dynamics of moral choices in complex contexts.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ding, Yahui et al. 2025. "Social norms bias in the donation." AEA RCT Registry. February 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14963-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
We designed an online experiment to investigate whether gifts influence donation behavior by altering donors’ perceptions of the social appropriateness of various donation amounts. In addition, we asked participants to justify their social norm evaluations in writing, allowing us to identify the underlying motivations that drive the impact of gifts on social norms.
Intervention Start Date
2024-12-10
Intervention End Date
2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Participants' social norms and their donation amount in different treatments.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The design was based on charities providing gifts based on the dictator game and the deliberation design commonly used in psychology, and the experiment was designed using the methodology of the elicit norm in Krupka and Weber (2013).
Experimental Design Details
We designed the experiment to investigate the main question of whether the introduction of uncertainty-based incentives (referred to as “uncertainty gifts”) distorts individuals’ social norm perceptions and influences their prosocial behavior. Additionally, we aim to examine whether requiring participants to provide a justification for their decisions further impacts the distortion of social norms.
In all treatments, participants completed a dictator with a charitable organization as the recipient, where they decided how much of a $10 endowment to donate. Before making their donation decision, participants completed a social norm elicitation task. The experimental treatments varied in two key aspects. One is whether participants received an unconditional lottery, and the other is whether they were asked to provide a justification for their social norm decision. Based on these differences, we designed four treatments named L_W, NL_W, L_NW and NL_NW treatments.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in Prolific. Additionally, there was a public lottery.
Randomization Unit
individual of randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
200 subjects
Sample size: planned number of observations
200 subjects
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50 subjects for each treatments
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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