Experimental Design Details
Part 1: Status assignment and benefit allocation
Participants are randomly grouped in groups of 3. They are informed that they will complete a 15-question general knowledge quiz that will assign them a status within their group. Each status is assigned a differential payment scheme, and this is information given ahead of time. Once the quiz is completed, they are notified that certain individuals are eligible for an additional benefit. In the control, only those who are low status are eligible for an additional $1. In the plausible deniability treatment, those in the low and middle status are eligible for a $1 benefit. They are notified that they must come up to the front of the room if they want this additional benefit. Once they have the opportunity to decide if they want this benefit if eligible, they learn their status. The experimenter then calls those who claimed the benefit to the front of the room to receive a token for the additional $1.
Part 2: Competition
Following Niederle & Vesterlund (2007), participants first complete as many five 2-digit summations as possible in 5 minutes, paid at 50 cents per correct answer (piece-rate). They are then given the option to either do the same exercise again at the same payment schedule or select into competition within their group assignment from the first exercise. If choosing to compete, the payment is $1.50 per correct answer for the winner and $0 otherwise. They do not know their performance at any stage, but are asked what their beliefs are regarding their own relative performance.
Part 3: Additional tasks
These include risk preferences, social preferences, shyness, and demographics to check for balance and covariates.