Monetary Harm, Study 4

Last registered on April 12, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Monetary Harm, Study 4

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009209

Initial registration date

April 11, 2022

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

April 12, 2022, 8:23 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Switzerland

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Michele Garagnani

Affiliation

University of Melbourne

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-04-17

End date

2022-04-22

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

Harming; Other Regarding Preferences;

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

We study under which conditions people are willing to take more money from one individual compared to five other participants, even when they are provided with an initial endowment.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Garagnani, Michele. 2022. "Monetary Harm, Study 4." AEA RCT Registry. April 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9209-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants are invited to a behavioral laboratory in multiples of 6 and are truthfully informed of the design of the study. During the experiment, participants face three interaction situations, which involve other participants. Moreover, in each situation participants are randomly assigned to one of two roles, Active or Passive.

Intervention Start Date

2022-04-17

Intervention End Date

2022-04-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Amount of money taken in the bilateral interaction and in the group interaction.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Behavior in a modified dictator game

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design Details

In situation 1, each participant in the Active role (1-B) is paired with one participant in the Passive role (2-B). Participants in the Passive and Active role receive a monetary endowment E = 10 CHF. Participants in the Active role can take money (xB ) from the Passive participant they are paired with (only from him/her), 0 ≤ xB ≤ 10. In situation 2, participants in the Active role (1-G) are matched with five participants in the Passive role (2-G). Participants in the Passive and Active role receive a monetary endowment of E = 10 CHF each. Participants in the Active role can take money (xG ) from each of the five Passive participants (the same amount from each of them). That
is, 1G receives 5xG and xG is taken from each 1-B, with 0 ≤ xG ≤ 10. The order in which situation 1 and situation 2 are presented is randomized between participants, and their labels are adjusted accordingly.
In situation 3 each participant in the Active role is paired with one participant in the Passive role and she is asked multiple questions about how to distribute money between herself and this other participant. If this situation is payoff-relevant (see below), at the end of the experiment, one of the questions is selected at random and the Active participant’s answer is implemented.

Randomization Method

The order in which situation 1 and situation 2 are presented is randomized between
participants, and their labels are adjusted accordingly.
Participants are assigned to groups and roles in a random way.

Randomization Unit

Individuals

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

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

Our hypotheses concern the within-person comparison of the amount taken from a single individual and from each of the individuals in the group, that is, xB and xG . A power analysis was conducted to determine the required sample size. The main test is a within-subject Wilcoxon signed-rank test to investigate statistical differences in the amounts xB and xG. The sample size to have enough power (0.8) to detect a medium effect (d = 0.33) is N = 60. Additional regression analyses controlling for other factors (demographics) have more power than the non-parametric test. We will collect data session-by-session until we reach or exceed N = 60 (each session needs to have a multiple of 6 number of participants, and there might be no-shows). We will exclude participants with economics or psychology field of studies from recruitment. No participant who completes the experiment will be excluded from the analysis.

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