Social Ties and Gender Differences in Preferences for Competition

Last registered on March 12, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Social Ties and Gender Differences in Preferences for Competition
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007319
Initial registration date
March 12, 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 12, 2021, 8:46 AM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
NYU Abu Dhabi

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Konstanz
PI Affiliation
University of St. Gallen

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-03-15
End date
2021-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We conduct an online eperiment to investigate whether social ties affect gender differences in preferences for competition.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Brox, Enzo, Moritz Janas and Baiba Renerte. 2021. "Social Ties and Gender Differences in Preferences for Competition." AEA RCT Registry. March 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7319-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
see experimental design section.
Intervention Start Date
2021-03-15
Intervention End Date
2021-03-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Decision whether subjects choose a competitive or a non-competitive payment scheme.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
binary decision in the experiment. We are mainly interested in the shares of men and women choosing competition in the different treatments.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
details in Experimental Design (Hidden)
Experimental Design Details
We conduct an online experiment. All subjects in the experiment play the same sequence of games. Examples of the decision screens of the experiment are outlined in the attached pdf. There are four treatments that differ in the group matching between stages.

Stage 0: Subjects enter their gender. A random nickname, that is unique in a matching group, will be allocated. Each nickname consists of a title (Mr or Ms, dependent on the gender) and a random animal, taken from the google document list.

Stage 1 (Socializing I) Subjects are randomly matched in groups of three and chat for 10 minutes. Subjects receive topic suggestions for discussion repeatedly. As an intervention check, stage 1 begins and ends with an elicitation of closeness towards each of the other group members Gächter et al 2015.

Interim Stage: Subjects learn the setup (and matching protocol) for the remainder of the experiment.

Stage 2(Outcome variable) Subjects decide whether they want to play stage 3 competitively or individually. This decision will be labeled neutrally (option A and option B), where the options are counterbalanced. Every subject who decided in favor of competition enters a contest. The prize money is adjusted for the number of competitors such that the expected payoff is equivalent under both schemes.

Stage 3 (Task) A grid of letters is shown. Three words are hidden in there. The first person who identifies all three words correctly wins. Payoff playing alone: 3 Euro + 10 Euro - 5 cent * number of seconds needed to succeed. Payoff of the winner of competition: 3 Euro + n * (10 Euro - 5 cent * number of seconds needed to succeed), where n depicts the number of players in the contest. The losers of the contest receives 3 Euro payoff from this stage. Every contest participant learns about who won and who lost the competition in their group.

Stage 4 (Socializing II) Repetition of Stage 1 (with new questions to discuss). The closeness questions will be asked again prior and after the chat.

Stage 5 (Risk preference) Subjects play the 'bomb-task' (Crosetto and Filippin 2013).

Stage 6 (CRT and Overconfidence) Subjects answer cognitive reflection task (CRT) questions and guess a) how many they answered correct, and b) the average other subject answered correct (Ring et al 2016).

Stage 7 (Post Experimental Questionnaire) Subjects answer the Fallucchi et al 2020 competition question, open questions about the behavior in the experiment, a Big 5 questionnaire and socio economic questions.

Treatments:
T1: Subjects are randomly matched in groups of three in stage 1. In stage 3, subjects are randomly matched with two other subjects they have not interacted with before. In stage 4 subjects are randomly matched with two other subjects they have not interacted with before.

T2: Subjects are randomly matched in groups of three in stage 1. The group composition of Stage 1 remains the same in stage 3. In Stage 4, subjects are randomly matched with two other subjects they have not interacted with before.

T3: Subjects are randomly matched in groups of three in stage 1. In Stage 3, subjects are randomly matched with two other subjects they have not interacted with before. The group composition of stage 3 remains the same in stage 4.

T4: Subjects are randomly matched in groups of three in Stage 1. The group composition of Stage 1 remains the same in Stage 3 and Stage 4.


Feedback:
Subjects do not learn the sequence of the following parts while playing Stage 1. At the beginning of stage 2, subjects learn the sequence of the remainder of the game, including all the nicknames of the subjects in their group in each stage. At the beginning of stage 3, subjects learn how many competitors there are as well as their nicknames (in case they chose competition). In the competition environments, they also learn everyone's payoff of the competition. In the individual environments, they learn their own payoff only. At the end, subjects learn their own payoff of the whole experiment, including the payoff from the CRT and Risk task.
Randomization Method
randomization via zTree software
Randomization Unit
experimental session, group level and individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
24 sessions
Sample size: planned number of observations
432 subjects
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
6 sessions per treatment, 18 subjects per session, 4 treatments
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Gesellschaft fuer expeirmentelle Wirtschaftsforschung
IRB Approval Date
2021-03-03
IRB Approval Number
q5YuGoi5

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