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Aversion to Dominance

Last registered on September 21, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Aversion to Dominance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003338
Initial registration date
September 20, 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
September 21, 2018, 12:05 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Andrew Kao
Affiliation
The University of Chicago
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Daron Acemoglu
PI Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Frank Schilbach
PI Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Leonardo Bursztyn
PI Affiliation
The University of Chicago
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-02-01
End date
2018-12-03
Keywords
Gender, Governance
Additional Keywords
Dominance, Aversion, Authoritarianism
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
People’s preference to make own decisions rather than being dominated by others is at the heart of liberal democracies. This aversion to dominance might be impeded by threats to their physical safety, economic status, or gender and racial identity. We study the extent to which individuals prefer not to be dominated using three measure: (1) Directly measuring willingness to pay to avoid being “dominated,” or yielding control over some aspect of their lives to another party, via an experiment called the “Boss Game,” (2) Eliciting willingness to donate to anti-authoritarian causes, and (3) Survey data on preferences for authoritarianism. We examine whether people’s aversion to being dominated is weakened when their physical and economic safety, and identity are threatened.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Acemoglu, Daron et al. 2018. "Aversion to Dominance." AEA RCT Registry. September 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3338-1.0
Former Citation
Acemoglu, Daron et al. 2018. "Aversion to Dominance." AEA RCT Registry. September 21. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3338/history/34500
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-09-24
Intervention End Date
2018-10-08

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Willingness to pay (boss game)
2. Donations
3. Authoritarianism survey
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
In the Boss Game, subjects asked to choose between i) a computer deciding the allocation of $1 randomly to either the subject or to another subject; ii) another person making the same allocation decision without knowledge of any information about the two subjects. Using a multiple price list, we elicit participants' willingness to pay (from an additional $2 endowment) to implement either option i) or ii).

In the Donation, we ask subjects whether they would like to donate $0.50 from an endowment of $1 to the WWF and the ACLU, respectively.

Finally, two survey questions measure authoritarianism from WVS/EVS and TAPS.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Study participants will be recruited on MTurk, restricting the subject pool to white males. The graph here (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1XHCmxqlYrxklXBPes0YUMwQTelrK_E6TFwalLzAX45o/edit?usp=sharing) shows an overview of the experimental design.

Upon asking simple demographics, participants are given one of the following information treatments:

- The placebo treatment consists of informing subjects about the timing of the invention of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- The physical safety threat informs subjects about the potential danger indicated by the Doomsday Clock being moved closer to midnight.
- The racial identity threat informs subjects about prominent states and cities where racial minorities outnumber whites.
- The male identity threat informs subjects that the share of households in which women earn more than their husband has increased.
- The economic threat informs subjects that a large proportion of jobs are at risk of automation.

In the Boss Game, subjects asked to choose between i) a computer deciding the allocation of $1 randomly to either the subject or to another subject; ii) another person making the same allocation decision without knowledge of any information about the two subjects. Using a multiple price list, we elicit participants' willingness to pay (from an additional $2 endowment) to implement either option i) or ii).

In the Donation, we ask subjects whether they would like to donate $0.50 from an endowment of $1 to the WWF and the ACLU, respectively.

Finally, two survey questions measure authoritarianism from WVS/EVS and TAPS.

The intended sample size includes 1,500 white males, though we will restrict our sample to a subset of individuals who pass a screening test for bots/careless respondents.

We hypothesize that:
- Subjects will exhibit a positive average willingness to pay to avoid being dominated as measured by the “Boss Game”
- Subjects in the treatment groups will be willing to pay less to avoid being dominated than the placebo group.
- Subjects in the treatment groups will be less willing to donate to anti-authoritarian causes than the placebo group.
- Subjects in the treatment groups will be more willing to explicitly state a preference for authoritarianism in survey questions

We will examine the effects of each treatment separately, and hence oversample the placebo group (2x size). We will also consider a specification that pools all treatment groups and compares them to the control group jointly.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Treatments are randomized at the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1500 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
500 placebo, 250 for each treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The Social and Behavioral Sciences IRB University of Chicago
IRB Approval Date
2018-03-22
IRB Approval Number
IRB17-0703
Analysis Plan

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