Content Matters: The Effects of Commitment Requests on Truth-Telling, UPDATE

Last registered on March 07, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Content Matters: The Effects of Commitment Requests on Truth-Telling, UPDATE
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009683
Initial registration date
July 06, 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
July 08, 2022, 9:49 AM EDT

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

Last updated
March 07, 2023, 8:41 AM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Linz
PI Affiliation
Bundesbank
PI Affiliation
University of Munich

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-07-13
End date
2022-11-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This trial is an update of Cagala, Tobias, Ulrich Glogowsky and Johannes Rincke. 2020. "Content Matters: The Effects of Commitment Requests on Truth-Telling", https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6700. We plan to collect additional data on the cheating game in a laboratory experiment and an online survey on psychological reactance.

The main changes relative to the cited trial are as follows: First, compared to the last run, the experimental data will be collected in the laboratory rather than online. This step allows us to test the robustness of our results across settings. Second, we will collect data in two laboratories (Munich and Konstanz). To facilitate data collection, we extended our team of principal investigators (Simeon Schudy has joined the team as a new PI). Third, we will reduce the number of treatments to maximize the statistical power. Specifically, we will implement the control group, the ethics treatment, and the sanction treatment (but not the neutral treatment). Fourth, we decided to change the ordering of the reactance survey and the experiment: The experimental data will be collected first, followed by the online survey on reactance. Hereby, we avoid any spillovers of the survey questions on behavior in the experiment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cagala, Tobias et al. 2023. "Content Matters: The Effects of Commitment Requests on Truth-Telling, UPDATE." AEA RCT Registry. March 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9683-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We plan to repeat the trial described in AEARCTR-0006700 with a few changes: First, compared to the last run, the experimental data will be collected in the laboratory rather than online. This step allows us to test the robustness of our results across settings. Second, we will collect data in two laboratories (Munich and Konstanz). To facilitate data collection, we extended our team of principal investigators (Simeon Schudy has joined the team as a new PI). Third, we will reduce the number of treatments to maximize the statistical power. Specifically, we will implement the control group, the ethics treatment, and the sanction treatment (but not the neutral treatment). Fourth, we decided to change the ordering of the reactance survey and the experiment: The experimental data will be collected first, followed by the online survey on reactance. Hereby, we avoid any spillovers of the survey questions on behavior in the experiment.
Intervention Start Date
2022-07-13
Intervention End Date
2022-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Indicator for subjects who cheat (misreport a drawn number)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Same as in original trial

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Parts: The trial consists of two parts: an experiment, and a survey on psychological reactance.

Timing: The experimental data on the cheating game will be collected first, followed by the online survey on psychological reactance.

Part I (laboratory experiment): Our primary goal is to study whether different commitment requests (ethics and sanction) do affect cheating behavior relative to the control group. Our design is as follows: Subjects play a standard cheating game. A random draw determines a number between 1 and 6. Subjects receive an additional payoff of 5 Euro if they report a 5, and no additional payoff if they report any other number. In this setting, we test if different commitment requests affect cheating behavior. Particularly, at the beginning of the experimental sessions, subjects in the treatment groups sign a no-cheating declaration (control group: no declaration, no signature). The content of the declaration varies between a version referring to the standards of ethical sound behavior (ETHICAL STANDARD) and a version with a threat that non-compliance will be sanctioned (SANCTION). To maximize our statistical power, we do not implement the NEUTRAL treatment.

Part II (reactance survey): Subjects will be invited to participate in the online survey about two weeks after the laboratory session. The survey elicits psychological reactance in the same way as in the original trial. The reactance questions are embedded in a Big-5 questionnaire with 15 questions. We will also consider the heterogeneity of the treatment effects with respect to the subjects' reactance score as a secondary analysis. By running the experimental sessions before eliciting reactance, we make sure that the cheating behavior in the experiment cannot be confounded by the reactance survey (a concern raised by one of the referees).

Data linking: The experimental data and the survey data will be linked via a random code. Subjects revive the code upon entering the laboratory on paper and will be asked to type it into a text field both in the laboratory and when participating in the online survey.

Laboratories: The experimental sessions will be conducted in Munich and Konstanz, and if recruitment efforts require in Nuremberg. We need several laboratories in order to collect the planned number of observations.

Data analysis: The data analysis will follow the guidelines set by the original trial. As secondary analysis, we will study heterogeneity of the treatment effect regarding psychological reactance.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by a computer
Randomization Unit
Participant
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
540 participants
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to collect data on 450 subjects who have an incentive to misreport in our experiment. Due to the nature of the random draw (for each subject, there is a 1/6 chance that the subject will have no rational option to cheat), we aim to recruit in total 540 participants (540*5/6) = 450). Due to attrition, the sample size for subjects who also complete the reactance survey two weeks later will be somewhat smaller. We will recruit subjects in the laboratories in Munich, Konstanz, and (if necessary) Nuremberg, but given the current situation regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot guarantee that we will succeed regarding the planned sample size.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
150 subjects by treatment arm (after excluding subjects who, due to their random draw, had no incentive to cheat).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See original trial.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Commission, Department of Economics, University of Munich
IRB Approval Date
2022-06-22
IRB Approval Number
Project 2022-08

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
November 30, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
November 30, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
510 subjects; 427 subjects with a random draw qualifying them for the estimation sample
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
427 subjects with a random draw qualifying them for the estimation sample
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
150 control, 140 ethics, 137 sanction
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials