Narratives and Valuations (Field)

Last registered on September 30, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Narratives and Valuations (Field)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009785
Initial registration date
August 04, 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
August 09, 2022, 2:33 PM EDT

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

Last updated
September 30, 2023, 6:15 PM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Pittsburgh

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
CMU

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-11-28
End date
2023-02-28
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking in a randomized field experiment to estimate the effect of narrative (compared to analytical) thinking on valuations.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Morag, Dor and George Loewenstein. 2023. "Narratives and Valuations (Field)." AEA RCT Registry. September 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9785-3.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Self-constructed stimuli - Participants are randomized to describe their pre-owned item differently or write an unrelated paragraph.
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-28
Intervention End Date
2023-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to Accept (WTA) in USD, and unwillingness to sell (refusing to sell at any offered price)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
WTA is the switching price in the MPL

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
15 post-MPL questions
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
After submitting their MPL choices, participants answer a set of questions regarding their item and their selling process.
Participants' self-constructed texts are used in a language analysis to study correlations with WTA.
If participants indicate that they knew they will be offered to sell their hat (on the question regarding why they chose this hat today), they are excluded.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
People wearing a hat are approached on campus (not knowing why) and offered to participate in a short survey. Once consent is given, participants fill out a demographics questionnaire and are randomized to describe their items differently. Finally, participants are surprisingly offered to sell their items to the experimenter, and their willingness to accept (WTA) is elicited through incentivized multiple price lists (where one decision might be randomly selected to count). Finally, participants answer 15 questions regarding their hats.
Experimental Design Details
We manipulate the likelihood of narrative thinking by asking participants to describe their self-selected item with either a story (narrative thinking) or a list (analytical thinking). Thus, participants naturally create their stimuli like they would in real life. Note that when the description is written, participants don't know they'll be offered to sell it.
Randomization Method
Digital randomization for the treatment arms, and a public lottery for the binding decisions in the MPL.
Randomization Unit
The individual is the randomized unit for treatment, and the decision number (e.g., decision 20 regarding $10) is the randomized unit for the MPL lottery per participant.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 participants
Sample size: planned number of observations
150 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50 narrative, 50 list, and 50 no description.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Judgment and Decision-Making
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-22
IRB Approval Number
IRBSTUDY2015_00000482
IRB Name
Decision Making Study
IRB Approval Date
2020-01-13
IRB Approval Number
STUDY20090122

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
February 06, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
February 06, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials