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Risk as Excuses for Selfishness in Social Decisions: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

Last registered on December 19, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Risk as Excuses for Selfishness in Social Decisions: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008697
Initial registration date
December 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
December 19, 2021, 12:50 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
China
Region
Beijing

Primary Investigator

Name
Wanxin DONG
Affiliation
Renmin University of China
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jiakun Zheng
PI Affiliation
Renmin University of China
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-12-18
End date
2022-04-30
Keywords
Behavior, Lab, Welfare
Additional Keywords
risk preferences, altruism, selfishness, prosocial behavior, externalities
JEL code(s)
D71, D80, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Exley (2016) has examined charitable giving behavior under risk, i.e., how much one is willing to improve others’ welfare while sacrificing one’s own welfare. She has found that individuals use risk as excuses not to give when there is self-partner tradeoff. People become more averse to partners’ risk and less averse to self risk. However, many real-life situations are about how much one is ready to benefit from sacrificing others’ welfare or to sacrifice one’s own welfare to benefit others. We investigate the role of risk in these types of situations. In our laboratory experiment, participants make a series of decisions between risky and riskless gains or losses for themselves or their partners. Their altered risk responses between no self-partner tradeoff and self-partner tradeoff will reflect the existence of excuse-driven risk preferences. We expect a reverse pattern of individual risk attitudes in the loss domain, i.e., more seeking to partners’ risk and less seeking to self risk. Moreover, individuals tend to exhibit more excuse-driven risk preferences in the loss domain.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
DONG, Wanxin and Jiakun Zheng. 2021. "Risk as Excuses for Selfishness in Social Decisions: Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. December 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8697-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We measure excuse-driven risk preferences in the gain domain and loss domain. We adopt a within-subject design. There are correspondingly four blocks for each treatment, i.e., 8 blocks in total. Price lists in each block only differ in 7 different probabilities. The order of two treatments is random, and four blocks in each treatment are presented in a random order for each participant.
Intervention Start Date
2021-12-18
Intervention End Date
2021-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- partner-specific values in the gain and loss domain respectively
- participants' valuations of different lotteries
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our experimental design is mainly based on Exley (2016)’s methods, but we include two treatments, gain and loss. Participants are required to complete thirty price lists respectively in the gain and loss domain, that is 60 price lists in total. These thirty price lists in each treatment include one “normalization” price list, one buffer price list and 28 valuation price lists. Each price list consists of a series of binary decisions. Through these price lists, we could measure individuals' responses to different risk situations.
In each treatment, participants first complete a normalization price list that determines partner-specific X values. Partner-specific X values are used later to determine the non-zero gains or losses of partner lotteries and partner certain amounts in valuation price lists. The second one is a buffer price list similar to the normalization one. After completing the first two price lists, participants complete 28 valuation price lists respectively in two treatments, which are used to estimate individuals’ lottery valuations. In this part, participants face eight types of decision tasks – {self gain lottery, partner gain lottery} X {self gain certain amount, partner gain certain amount} and {self loss lottery, partner loss lottery} X {self loss certain amount, partner loss certain amount}.
Experimental Design Details
Please see "Experimental Design” document for detailed descriptions.
Randomization Method
randomization done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
100 undergraduate students from Renmin University of China
Sample size: planned number of observations
100 undergraduate students from Renmin University of China
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Due to the within-subject design, all 100 subjects in the sample make all decision tasks in both 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
Lab of National Governance and Development, Renmin University of China
IRB Approval Date
2021-12-13
IRB Approval Number
RUCecon-202112-1
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