Anticipating Social Image Concerns

Last registered on July 22, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Anticipating Social Image Concerns
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019184
Initial registration date
July 16, 2026

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
July 22, 2026, 8:19 AM 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
Jonas Radbruch
Affiliation
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Maximilian Müller
PI Affiliation
Tolouse School of Economics
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-07-19
End date
2027-09-30
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Behavioral Economics; Labor; Charitable Giving
JEL code(s)
C91; D03; D64; J33
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
How well do people anticipate the effects of social observation on their own behavior? We test this in an online real-effort experiment in which participants complete four within-subject 5-minute rounds whose output funds a charitable donation. The rounds vary along two dimensions: (i) whether the participant's effort is observed live by another person via video, and (ii) whether the participant receives a personal piece-rate bonus on top of the donation. Each participant is assigned to one of eight counterbalanced orders that nest the observability manipulation (Anonymous vs. Video) either in the first or second half of the experiment and the piece-rate manipulation (standard vs. higher rate) in the other half. Before any round begins, we elicit participants' predictions of their own effort under each of the four conditions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Müller, Maximilian and Jonas Radbruch. 2026. "Anticipating Social Image Concerns." AEA RCT Registry. July 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19184-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Each participant completes four within-subject five-minute real-effort rounds. The rounds vary in (i) whether effort is observed live by another person via video and (ii) whether the participant receives a personal piece-rate bonus in addition to a fixed-rate donation to charity. Effort produces a donation to the American Red Cross at a rate of $0.02 per 10 completed task units; in the two "paid" rounds the participant additionally earns a personal bonus at a piece-rate that varies between the two paid rounds. Before any round begins, an incentivized belief elicitation asks each participant to predict their own effort in each of the four conditions.
Intervention Start Date
2026-07-19
Intervention End Date
2026-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Predicted effort choices and realized effort choices across all four conditions.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Effort in any given round is measured as the participant's output on the real-effort task during that round (i.e., the number of completed task units in the five-minute period).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The trial is an online within-subject behavioral experiment. Each participant completes a structured pre-survey, then four 5-minute real-effort rounds in one of eight counterbalanced orders, then a post-survey.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Order across rounds is varied at the session level: each session runs a single fixed order (one of eight), and participants do not see or learn the order assignment in the recruitment material. Across sessions, the eight orders are scheduled in equal proportion. The belief-incentive lottery is randomized by computer at the participant level.
Randomization Unit
Order assignment: session. Belief-incentive lottery: individual participant.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
320
Sample size: planned number of observations
320 participants (before applying sample restrictions). We will exclude the following participants from our analyses: Restriction 1: Participants who fail attention check 1 (do not enter the value 10 when instructed) or attention check 2 (do not correctly leave a field blank when instructed). Restriction 2: Participants who register zero output (zero task units completed) across all four effort rounds. Restriction 3: Participants whose pre-task predicted output is zero across all four conditions. Restriction 4: Participants whose webcam is detected as blocked or covered for more than 50 percent of the 5-minute Video round.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
320
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Toulouse School of Economics
IRB Approval Date
2026-07-07
IRB Approval Number
2-26153
Analysis Plan

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