Experiments on Willful Ignorance

Last registered on June 21, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Experiments on Willful Ignorance

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008172

Initial registration date

September 15, 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

September 16, 2021, 10:30 PM EDT

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

Last updated

June 21, 2022, 3:19 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Fabian Bopp

Affiliation

Paderborn University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Wendelin Schnedler

PI Affiliation

Paderborn University

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2022-03-01

End date

2022-05-31

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

Willful Ignorance, Information Avoiding, Reflection

JEL code(s)

D83, C72, C91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Many people claim to intend to act pro-socially but do not. One reason might be that they are willfully ignoring the harm that they impose on others; this may allow them to maintain a positive self-image while serving their own interests. If this is the case, careful reflection may reveal to subjects that they are "kidding" themselves. We examine experimentally, whether reflection results in more people informing themselves about the negative consequences of their choices.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bopp, Fabian and Wendelin Schnedler. 2022. "Experiments on Willful Ignorance." AEA RCT Registry. June 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8172-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention will consist of an ex-ante questionnaire, which is administered to half of the participants. In the questionnaire, the subjects will be confronted with questions with the aim to cause a better reflection of the situation.

Intervention Start Date

2022-03-01

Intervention End Date

2022-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The variable of interest is whether subjects reveal information or not.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

This can be directly observed in the data.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

The follow-up decision in the game after revealing or not revealing information is to either make a selfish or a prosocial choice.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Again, this can be directly observed in the data.

Experimental Design

The design is based on the hidden information treatment in the moral wiggle room game by Dana, Weber, and Kuang (2007). Subject A can choose between two Options 'high' and 'low'. His payoff is directly connected to his choice and is known to subject A. Also, the payoff of subject B is depending on the choice of A. Here, at the beginning of the game either the interest are conflicting or aligned. If the interests are aligned the 'high' option is best for both subjects. If the interests are conflicting, the 'low' option is better for subject B and worse for A. In this case, subject A would be in a social dilemma. Subject A can decide whether he wants to learn whether the interests are aligned or conflicting. (This is the primary outcome variable.) In order to maximize observations, we use the stratetgy method for the information decision. To boost reflection, we use a questionnaire that half of the subjects in the role of A have to fill in. (This is the intervention.) In the questionnaire, A has to answer questions on his future actions in the game and thus ex-ante think through and reflect the game.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization is done on individual level by a computer.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Depending on the show-up rate and technical procedure the number of experimental sessions may vary. We plan to conduct X-Y sessions with 24 subjects per session.

Sample size: planned number of observations

XXX subjects

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

As one treatment arm will be a replication the size of this arm can vary on the results. If in our pool the results are on a very similar level and are not significantly different from other studies, we may pool our data with old data and focus on the non-replication treatments.
If this is not the case we will have same-sized treatment arms.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB