Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment

Hergueux, Jérôme; Jacquemet, Nicolas

Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment

Jérôme Hergueux (jerome.hergueux@gess.ethz.ch) and Nicolas Jacquemet (nicolas.jacquemet@psemail.eu)
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Jérôme Hergueux: Sciences Po - Sciences Po

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Abstract: Internet is a very attractive technology for the implementation of experiments, both in order to obtain larger and more diverse samples and as a field of economic research in its own right. This paper reports on an experiment performed both online and in the laboratory, designed to strengthen the internal validity of decisions elicited over the Internet. We use the same subject pool, the same monetary stakes and the same decision interface, and control the assignment of subjects between the Internet and a traditional university laboratory. We apply the comparison to the elicitation of social preferences in a Public Good game, a dictator game, an ultimatum bargaining game and a trust game, coupled with an elicitation of risk aversion. This comparison concludes in favor of the reliability of behaviors elicited through the Internet. We moreover find a strong overall parallelism in the preferences elicited in the two settings. The paper also reports some quantitative differences in the point estimates, which always go in the direction of more other-regarding decisions from online subjects. This observation challenges either the predictions of social distance theory or the generally assumed increased social distance in internet interactions.

Keywords: Social experiment; Field experiment; Internet Methodology; Randomized assignment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-gth, nep-soc and nep-upt
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00984211v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Published in Experimental Economics, 2015, 18 (2), pp.252-283. ⟨10.1007/s10683-014-9400-5⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00984211

DOI: 10.1007/s10683-014-9400-5

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