Experiment on leadership, gender, and language

Last registered on August 28, 2018

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Experiment on leadership, gender, and language

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003208

Initial registration date

August 08, 2018

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 21, 2018, 12:33 AM EDT

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

Last updated

August 28, 2018, 4:17 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Ketki Sheth

Affiliation

UC Merced

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Shanthi Manian

PI Affiliation

Washington State University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2018-08-02

End date

2019-12-31

Keywords

Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study explores whether advice and leadership is more effective when by provided by men versus women. We additionally explore whether the language used in the provision of advice, and whether the outcome is based on group versus individual choices, changes how subjects respond to male and female leadership. We additionally estimate whether our treatment effects differ from subjects' and experts' priors.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Manian, Shanthi and Ketki Sheth. 2018. "Experiment on leadership, gender, and language." AEA RCT Registry. August 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3208-2.0

Former Citation

Manian, Shanthi and Ketki Sheth. 2018. "Experiment on leadership, gender, and language." AEA RCT Registry. August 28. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3208/history/33543

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We implement an online experiment (through a directed Qualtrics Survey) on Amazon MTurk in which subjects are paired with unseen leaders. The primary activity is for subjects to play two incentivized games: an individual logic game, Individual Game, and a group logic game, Coordination Game. During the games, the subject is provided advice on how to improve their expected performance by their leader. We ask additional survey questions to better understand mechanisms for potential treatment effects.

Intervention Start Date

2018-08-02

Intervention End Date

2018-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Strategic Play and Change in Strategic Play

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Strategic Play is an indicator for whether the subject selected the option that is advised by the leader.

In both games, the primary outcome is whether the subject followed the advice provided by the leader. We also estimate the change in following advice from the Individual to the Coordination game as an additional primary outcome.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Pre_Belief_TL
Keeps_TL
TL_Evaluation
TL_Recall
Self_Power

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

• Pre_Belief_TL: Subject’s belief of Team Leader performance in the individual game (1 to 20, increasing in leader performance).
• Keeps_TL: Indicator for whether Subject keeps the Team Leader for a final game.
• TL_Evaluation: Summary index (as in Anderson 2008) of 16 questions evaluating the effectiveness of the team leader.
• TL_Recall: Correct recall of leader messages (0 to 4, increasing in correct recall). Note, this outcome cannot be compared across language treatments (as messages are different), but only across the gender treatment.
• Self_Power: Summary index of 8 questions on the subject’s feeling of power/control.

Experimental Design

Our experimental design is for the characteristics of the unseen leader to be randomized along the following dimensions: gender and language. The subject is randomly assigned a female or male leader, and the type of language used in the advice provided (self-deprecating, neutral, self-promotional).

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done by Qualtrics computer software

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

minimum of 600 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

For most outcome variables, there is one observation per individual (i.e., minimum 600 individuals). For the Individual Game, we observe 10 decisions: minimum 6000 plays.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

a minimum of 100 individuals per treatment arm

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

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