Narratives and Valuations

Last registered on September 30, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Narratives and Valuations
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007409
Initial registration date
March 30, 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 30, 2021, 8:52 AM EDT

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

Last updated
September 30, 2023, 6:08 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Dor Morag
Affiliation
University of Pittsburgh
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
George Loewenstein
PI Affiliation
CMU
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-04-28
End date
2021-05-15
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
narratives, willingness to accept, valuations, multiple price list, experimental
JEL code(s)
D910 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking in a randomized online experiment to estimate the effect of narrative (compared to analytical) thinking on valuations.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Loewenstein, George and Dor Morag. 2023. "Narratives and Valuations." AEA RCT Registry. September 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7409-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-04-28
Intervention End Date
2021-05-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to Accept (WTA) in USD, and unwillingness to sell (refusing to sell at any offered price)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Acceptance to trade personal item for the same exact item but new, how much paid for the hat, ownership length, story career-related, list hinted to story
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
MTurk workers first choose an item they already owned (not knowing why) and are then randomized to high and low likelihood of narrative thinking. Finally, participants are offered to sell their items to the experimenter, and their willingness to accept (WTA) is elicited through incentivized multiple price lists (where one decision might be randomly selected to count).
Experimental Design Details
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking by asking participants to describe their self-selected item with either a story (narrative thinking) or a list (analytical thinking). Thus, participants naturally create their own stimuli in the same way they would in real life. Note that at the time the item is chosen, participants are blind to the consequences of their choice (i.e., they don't know they'll be offered to sell it).
Randomization Method
Digital randomization for the treatment arms, and a public lottery for the binding decisions in the MPL.
Randomization Unit
The individual is the randomized unit of treatment and control, and individual-decision touple (e.g., subject 104, decision 32) is the randomized unit for the lottery.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1000 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
1000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
250 non-significant / list, 250 non-significant / narrative, 250 significant / list, 250 significant / narrative.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Judgment and Decision-Making
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-22
IRB Approval Number
IRBSTUDY2015_00000482
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
April 29, 2021, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
April 29, 2021, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials