Gain-Loss Framing and Feedback Visibility in Financial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Laboratory Study

Last registered on August 24, 2026

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Gain-Loss Framing and Feedback Visibility in Financial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Laboratory Study

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0019431

Initial registration date

August 18, 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

August 24, 2026, 9:10 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Czechia

Region

Prague

Primary Investigator

Name

Ioana - Florina Coita

Affiliation

University of Economics and Business in Bratislava

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Jana Peliova

PI Affiliation

University of Economics and Business in Bratislava

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2026-06-17

End date

2026-08-18

Keywords

Behavior, Finance & Microfinance, Lab

Additional Keywords

risk perception; loss aversion; framing effect; feedback; financial decision-making; household debt; behavioral economics; laboratory experiment; robustness check

JEL code(s)

risk perception; loss aversion; framing effect; feedback; financial decision-making; household debt; behavioral economics; laboratory experiment; robustness check

Secondary IDs

Companion online trial: "Gain-Loss Framing and Feedback Visibility in Financial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Randomized Experiment" — AEA RCT Registry [ID after Prolific trial is published]. Earlier related design (research program precursor): "Neurocognitive Pathways to Risk: Affective Priming and Prediction Error in Dynamic Credit Simulation," OSF Registration, registered November 25, 2025. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/RD9AY. https://osf.io/rd9ay/

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study is a laboratory replication and robustness check of a companion online experiment (Gain-Loss Framing and Feedback Visibility in Financial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Randomized Experiment, registered separately on the AEA RCT Registry — see Secondary IDs) using the same 24-month simulated personal loan repayment task and the same 2×2 design crossing outcome framing (gain vs. loss) and score feedback visibility (displayed vs. hidden). Unlike the online study, where individual participants are independently randomized, this laboratory study randomizes at the session level: each of 8 laboratory sessions (≈24–28 participants per session) is randomly assigned to one of the four conditions, and all participants in a session complete the same scenario together. The study examines whether the framing and feedback-visibility effects observed online replicate in a supervised laboratory setting, and exploratorily examines the same psychometric trait moderators as the companion study. An earlier version of this study was pre-registered on OSF under the name of Neurocognitive Pathways to Risk: Affective Priming and Prediction Error in Dynamic Credit Simulation, here: https://osf.io/rd9ay/overview.

External Link(s)

earlier OSF preregistration

Registration Citation

Citation

Coita, Ioana - Florina and Jana Peliova. 2026. "Gain-Loss Framing and Feedback Visibility in Financial Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: A Laboratory Study." AEA RCT Registry. August 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19431-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Interventions

Intervention(s)

(1) a framing manipulation presenting the same monthly financial information using either gain-framed or loss-framed language, and (2) a feedback-visibility manipulation in which the running composite performance score is either displayed or hidden after each monthly decision. The sole procedural difference from the companion online study is the unit and method of randomization: here, treatment is assigned at the laboratory session level rather than to each individual participant.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2026-08-17

Intervention End Date

2026-08-18

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

(1) monthly loan repayment amount relative to the scheduled installment; (2) overdraft usage (amount and duration) over the 24-month task; (3) composite monthly financial-decision score (repayment, liquidity, and overdraft sub-scores).

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Self-reported post-task stress, perceived difficulty, and realism of the task. Exploratory analyses will examine whether individual differences in psychological traits (e.g., impulsivity, emotion regulation, general wellbeing) moderate the effect of framing and/or feedback visibility on behavioral outcomes; no directional prediction is made a priori.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

A 2×2 factorial design, randomized at the session level, assigns each of 8 laboratory sessions to one of four conditions crossing outcome framing (gain vs. loss) and score feedback visibility (displayed vs. hidden). All participants attending a given session complete a pre-task psychometric questionnaire, 24 simulated monthly decisions in a personal loan repayment scenario (identical scenario content to the companion online study — only framing and feedback visibility differ by condition), and a post-task questionnaire, under supervised laboratory conditions at VŠE Prague. This study is designed as a robustness check of the companion online (Prolific) experiment using the same design and materials in a supervised, in-person setting.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done by computer, at the session level: each laboratory session is randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions with equal probability before the session begins. All participants attending that session are administered the same condition (one scenario per session).

Randomization Unit

Laboratory session (cluster). There is a single level of randomization at the session level; individual participants within a session are not separately randomized.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

8 laboratory sessions (approximately 2 sessions per treatment arm).

Sample size: planned number of observations

Approximately 200 participants (approximately 24–28 per session, across 8 sessions).

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

2 sessions (~50 participants) gain-framing/score displayed, 2 sessions (~50 participants) gain-framing/score hidden, 2 sessions (~50 participants) loss-framing/score displayed, 2 sessions (~50 participants) loss-framing/score hidden.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

The target of ~200 participants (8 sessions of ~24–28 participants each, 2 sessions per arm) was set primarily by laboratory capacity and logistical constraints at the host institution (Prague University of Economics and Business, VŠE) over the two available laboratory days, ; see the Analysis Plan section for the inferential approach adopted to address this (wild cluster bootstrap / randomization inference).

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB