Self-control and working from home

Last registered on March 24, 2021

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Self-control and working from home

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0007147

Initial registration date

March 24, 2021

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

March 24, 2021, 10:46 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Julia Baumann

Affiliation

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Olga Stavrova

PI Affiliation

Tilburg University

PI Name

Anastasia Danilov

PI Affiliation

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-03-24

End date

2021-03-31

Keywords

Behavior, Labor

Additional Keywords

Working from home, self-control

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

We study the relationship between self-control and performance while working from home. In an online experiment, we randomly assign participants to one of three different self-control strategy treatments. These treatments are expected to increase participants’ self-reported productivity, goal achievement and job satisfaction. We will compute average treatment effects of the respective self-control strategies as well as analyze success of the strategies conditional on subjects’ individual characteristics. This evaluation will reveal whether some self-control strategies are more effective than others for individuals with different attributes, for example different personality traits and socio-demographic characteristics. Subjects will also answer questions about their natural use of self-control strategies apart from their treatment strategy. With pre-intervention data, we conduct a correlational analysis examining the determinants of performance and satisfaction working from home.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Baumann, Julia, Anastasia Danilov and Olga Stavrova. 2021. "Self-control and working from home ." AEA RCT Registry. March 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7147-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Subjects are randomly assigned to follow one of three self-control strategies for the duration of one week. A separate group of subjects is assigned to the control condition.

Intervention Start Date

2021-03-24

Intervention End Date

2021-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

goal achievement; productivity; job satisfaction

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

emotions; stress at work; focus; hours worked; satisfaction with life and other life-domains

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We recruit employed professionals working at least partly from home via the platform Prolific.co. They first complete a survey which collects information on trait self-control, patience, intrinsic work motivation, well-being, life satisfaction, and the Big Five personality traits. We also collect information about their level of education, information regarding professional success, self-management, and demographic characteristics. After completing the survey, subjects will be randomly assigned to one of three self-control strategies or the control group. They will be asked to follow this strategy for one week. After this week, they fill out a second survey indicating their experience with the assigned strategy and reporting on outcome variables.

Experimental Design Details

We recruit professionals working at least partly from home via the platform Prolific.co. We will contact the subjects three times: for an in-take survey and treatment manipulation, after four days with a reminder of the treatment manipulation, and after 7 days with a second survey. The data collection is fully anonymous using the Prolific.co identifiers and subjects will be paid for their participation in each survey based on its duration according to the platform’s standards.
In the first survey, we will measure traits such as self-control, patience, intrinsic work motivation, well-being, life satisfaction, and personality traits. We also elicit the level of education, information regarding professional success, self-management, and demographic characteristics.
At the end of the first survey, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the three treatments (plus control condition). The treatment strands represent behavioral strategies that have previously been shown to be beneficial strategies that people naturally use to increase their self-control (Milyavskaya et al. 2020).
The behavioral strategies are:
- Remove any distractions from your workplace.
- Remind yourself of your (work) goals.
- When you face a distraction, promise yourself to give in later instead of now.
The control group will not be given a specific strategy. Subjects will be asked to follow these strategies whenever possible during the following week. As part of the treatment, they are asked to write down a short text regarding how they implement the respective strategy. We will use these answers to measure the cognitive attention but also to send a reminder and compare with the second survey. In the middle of the week, we will contact subjects with a personalized reminder email. At the end of the week, participants are asked about their experiences during the treatment period. We will evaluate the use of the assigned strategy and its success evaluated by the subjects’ (change in) productivity, goal achievement and well-being.
After the experiment is conducted, we aim to evaluate the average treatment effects. We will also analyze success of strategy conditional on subjects’ individual characteristics. This evaluation will reveal whether some self-control strategies are more effective than others for individuals with different attributes, for example with respect to personality traits, gender or job tasks. This part of the study is exploratory as we do not have strong hypotheses about which attributes moderate the effectiveness of self-control strategies. We plan on using these insights in a future separate project with personalized self-control treatments.

Randomization Method

Randomization done by survey provider Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

400 workers (or 360 workers with 10% expected attrition)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

100 workers control, 100 workers "distraction removal", 100 workers "goal reminders", 100 workers "giving in later" (or 90 workers each with 10% attrition)

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

Given the sample size, we can detect a small local effect (Cohen’s f2) of 0.03 with a power of 0.8.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB