Impact of diminishing biased placement beliefs about savings on saving intentions

Last registered on April 04, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of diminishing biased placement beliefs about savings on saving intentions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015428
Initial registration date
April 03, 2025

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
April 04, 2025, 1:20 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Carlijn Prins
Affiliation
Utrecht University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Wilco van Dijk
PI Affiliation
Leiden University
PI Name
Stephanie Rosenkranz
PI Affiliation
Utrecht University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-04-07
End date
2027-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
Saving behavior, biased beliefs, overconfidence, overplacement
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Overplacement has been established across a wide variety of domains (Zell, Strickhouser, Sedikides & Alicke, 2020), including personal saving outcomes (Prins, Rosenkranz & van Dijk, in preparation). In this study we aim to get a better understanding of the consequences of biased placement beliefs about saving behavior. Specifically, we investigate the effects of an information treatment that aims to diminish biased placement beliefs on subsequent placement beliefs and on saving intentions. In an online survey experiment we therefore first measure respondents’ initial placement beliefs. Next, the treatment group receives information about the actual savings of the median household that is similar to the respondents’ household. The information treatment therefore teaches respondents whether their belief about the savings of others is accurate, and how they are actually placed compared to others. The control group receives no information. Respondents are randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Subsequently, we measure self and other beliefs about saving, and saving intentions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Prins, Carlijn, Stephanie Rosenkranz and Wilco van Dijk. 2025. "Impact of diminishing biased placement beliefs about savings on saving intentions." AEA RCT Registry. April 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15428-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Respondents in the treatment group will receive information about the median amount of savings of households that are similar to theirs. The information treatment also informs them whether this amount is higher, lower or the same as what respondents believed. Further, the information treatment includes a graph that shows the amount of savings of respondents’ household and that of a median similar household. Respondents in the control group will not receive information.

Our approach is based on (van Rooij, Coibion, Georgarakos, Candia & Gorodnichenko, 2024).
van Rooij, Maarten and Coibion, Olivier and Georgarakos, Dimitris and Candia, Bernardo and Gorodnichenko, Yuriy, Keeping Up with the Jansens: Causal Peer Effects on Household Spending, Beliefs and Happiness. IZA Discussion Paper No. 16769, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4709702
Intervention Start Date
2025-04-07
Intervention End Date
2025-05-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Subsequent placement beliefs about saving behavior

Saving intentions
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Subsequent placement beliefs about saving behavior
This will comprise the difference between other-beliefs and self-beliefs. Self-beliefs and other-beliefs will each be measured using two corresponding items (e.g. ‘How good is your household in saving?’ and ‘How good are similar households in saving?’ on an 11-point scale ranging from 0, not at all good – 10, very good). We will analyse the difference between the corresponding self and other items separately, and if Cronbachs alpha is at least 0.6 for the self-beliefs and for the other-beliefs, we will also make one construct for self-beliefs and other beliefs and calculate the difference between those two.

Subsequent placement beliefs = self-beliefs – other-beliefs

We will explore the effects of the information treatment on self and other-beliefs separately.


Saving intentions
Saving intentions will be measured using two questions, and when Cronbachs alpha is 0.6 or higher we will make one construct for saving intentions. Otherwise, the two measures will be analysed separately.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Initial placement beliefs

Actual placement
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Initial placement beliefs
This variable shows how respondents think they are placed relative to others. It is determined by the difference between respondents’ household savings and respondents’ beliefs about the savings of a median similar household.

Initial placement beliefs = savings – belief median savings

If initial placement beliefs > 0 the respondent beliefs he is in the top half of the savings distribution
If initial placement beliefs = 0 the respondent beliefs he is at the middle of the savings distribution
If initial placement beliefs < 0 the respondent beliefs he is in the lower half of the savings distribution



Actual placement
This variable will comprise how the savings in respondents’ households are placed relative to similar households.

Actual placement = savings – actual median savings

If actual placement > 0 the respondent is in the top half of the savings distribution
If actual placement = 0 the respondent is at the middle of the savings distribution
If actual placement < 0 the respondent is in the lower half of the savings distribution

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In an online survey experiment we will investigate whether information about savings of others influences placement beliefs and whether this impacts saving intentions. By doing so, we will take into account respondents’ initial placement beliefs about the amount of savings of their household compared to similar households.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization for treatment or control group will be done by the survey software that is being used.
Randomization Unit
Respondents (i.e. persons)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
There will be no clusters.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Our research will be part of a larger survey on wealth accumulation and investment choices among a representative sample of Dutch people aged between 18 and 80 years. Respondents that indicate in the survey that their household does not own investments that are listed on the stock exchange are included in our part of the survey. We expect that around 1,200 to 1,600 respondents will receive our questions.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
How many respondents will have an initial over- or underplacement bias will depend on respondents’ given answers in the survey as is outlined above.

Respondents will be randomly assigned by the survey software in the treatment or control group, with half of respondents being in the treatment group and the other half in the control group.
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

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