Pilot on Complexity on Social Learning

Last registered on January 02, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Pilot on Complexity on Social Learning
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015014
Initial registration date
December 12, 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
January 02, 2025, 7:07 AM EST

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Exeter

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Exeter

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2024-12-13
End date
2024-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Building on a test of how individuals anticipate and account for selection of others into sharing information, we run a pilot to investigate the role of complexity. By changing the distribution of private signals, we make it "obvious" how individuals with strong signals should act and so want to compare the resulting general behavior in this "simple" setting in comparison to the previous more "complex" setting.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Nei, Stephen and Pauline Vorjohann. 2025. "Pilot on Complexity on Social Learning." AEA RCT Registry. January 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15014-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In comparison to previous stages of this project, we make the private signals easier to understand
Intervention (Hidden)
The signals are either perfectly informative or completely uninformative, whereas previous the "strong" signal was not perfectly revealing of the true state.
Intervention Start Date
2024-12-13
Intervention End Date
2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The difference between the "selection" treatment and the "no-selection" treatment in participants' willingness to pay for the social signal and in how often they comply and update their beliefs conditional on the social signal, and how this difference compares to the difference found when using a more complex bag in previous rounds of the project.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will be shown marbles drawn from one of two bags. They will guess the bag. They will then be given the chance to pay to use the first guess of another participant (either drawn randomly from all other participants, or restricted to those who have likewise paid to be matched, or to be matched to a computer "guess" based on an additional draw from the bag) to update their guess about which bag was chosen for them. Beliefs and estimation of how optimal decisions were will also be collected.
Experimental Design Details
See attached pre analysis plan for further explanation
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer selecting which draws the participant sees, so that assignment to signal strength is determined by an individual random draw
Randomization Unit
individual for assignment to signal strength, by blocks to the order of selection versus no selection treatment (one ordering is used until half the desired subjects have participated, then the other ordering is used for the remaining subjects)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Roudhly 100 Prolific subjects (final amount determined by funding)
Sample size: planned number of observations
roughly 100 Prolific users
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
roughly 50 participants play 2 rounds of the S treatment, then 2 rounds of the N treatment, then 2 rounds of the C treatment. roughly 50 participants play 2 rounds of the N treatment, then 2 rounds of the S treatment, then 2 rounds of the C treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Exeter Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2024-11-11
IRB Approval Number
2603255
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