Examining the Association of Personality with Insurance Decisions

Last registered on July 23, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Examining the Association of Personality with Insurance Decisions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006160
Initial registration date
July 22, 2020

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 23, 2020, 9:47 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
New Zealand
Region
Wellington

Primary Investigator

Name
Thomas Dudek
Affiliation
University of Zurich
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Eric Ulm
PI Affiliation
Victoria University of Wellington
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-06-01
End date
2020-08-31
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Financial decisions, insurance, personality traits, locus of control, economic preferences.
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Personality plays a big role in people’s decisions and behavior and hence affects socio-economic outcomes. For example, personality traits predict occupational choices, income, schooling, and financial decisions. Due to the lack of data about people’s insurance decisions that is linkable to personality traits, we know little about how personality is associated with insurance decisions and responses to disasters. In this study I elicit the big five personality traits and locus of control from participants who make insurance decisions in an incentivized online experiment administered on Prolific.ac.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dudek, Thomas and Eric Ulm. 2020. "Examining the Association of Personality with Insurance Decisions." AEA RCT Registry. July 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6160-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Automatic trigger of disaster and house price increase by computer. Elicitation of personality traits before insurance decisions. Elicitation of demographics after insurance decisions. The goal is to link personality traits and economic preferences to insurance decisions.
Intervention Start Date
2020-08-01
Intervention End Date
2020-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Home insured in year y of period p; being insured with home/health/car/life/income insurance in real-life.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
After I elicit personality traits, participants make insurance decisions about a hypothetical home. They can choose from no insurance, one-year insurance, and two-year insurance. They make insurance decisions for six periods, each accounting for two years. Every period, they start with an initial home value of 500,000 and an account balance of 50,000 (to pay for insurance). Participants get paid randomly based on the decisions from one of the six periods. A disaster and home price increase is triggered automatically with a 10% and 50% chance, respectively.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Period-year randomization for each individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
250-300 people
Sample size: planned number of observations
250-300 people
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
n/a (this depends on the randomization of the computer)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Don't know. I have no prior knowledge and don't know how I would estimate this.
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