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The evolution of Trust

Last registered on December 20, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The evolution of Trust
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005198
Initial registration date
December 20, 2019

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
December 20, 2019, 11:13 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Uruguay
Region
Montevideo

Primary Investigator

Name
Diego Lamé
Affiliation
University of Pittsburgh
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Nestor Gandelman
PI Affiliation
Universidad ORT Uruguay
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-02-01
End date
2020-06-30
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Trust, reciprocity, belief consistency, behavior stability
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In 2007, we conducted an experiment as part of the IADB 2007 project “Building trust and social capital to reduce social exclusion”, where subjects played a series of decision making games, the first of which was the trust game (Berg et. al. 1995).
For this study, we will invite those subject to play the trust game 13 years later, to examine long run stability of trust, the effect of significant life events on trust levels, and preferences for consistency.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gandelman, Nestor and Diego Lamé. 2019. "The evolution of Trust." AEA RCT Registry. December 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5198-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-02-06
Intervention End Date
2020-03-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Trust: Amount of money sent by "Player 1" to "Player 2" in the trust game (Berg et. al. 1995).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Reciprocity: Amount of money sent back by "Player 2" to "Player 1" in the trust game (Berg et. al. 1995).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will play 4 rounds of the trust game (Berg et. al. 1995).
The basic setup consists on two players (sender, receiver) that have an initial endowment of $X. The sender chooses what fraction of her endowment $Y she’ll send to the receiver. $Y is tripled on its way to the receiver, and he now decides how much of his $X+3Y to send back to the sender.

Pairs will be re-matched every round.

Before making each rounds' decision, players will receive a card with demographic information of their counterpart (gender, age, education level, neighborhood, and nationality).

Subjects will be assigned the same role they had in 2007.

Only the first round will be used for direct comparison with 2007 trust levels.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Matchings will be pre-randomized by subject number, and subject numbers will be assigned randomly.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We expect to be able to recruit 120 subjects of the 580 that participated in 2007.
Sample size: planned number of observations
120 (60 senders, 60 recievers)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
120 decisions in 2007
120 decisions in 2020
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

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