Social preferences in the online laboratory.A randomized experiment

Jérôme Hergueux () and Nicolas Jacquemet ()
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Jérôme Hergueux: LaRGE Research Center, Université de Strasbourg

Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center from Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg

Abstract: Internet is a very attractive technology for experiments implementation, both in order to reach more diverse and larger 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 so as 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 randomly assign two groups of subjects between the Internet and a traditional University laboratory to compare behavior in a set of social preferences games. This comparison concludes in favor of the reliability of behaviors elicited through the Internet. Our behavioral results contradict the predictions of social distance theory, as we find that subjects allocated to the Internet treatment behave as if they were more altruistic, more trusting, more trustworthy and less risk averse than laboratory subjects. Those findings have practical importance for the growing community of researchers interested in using the Internet as a vehicle for social experiments and bear interesting methodological lessons for social scientists interested in using experiments to research the Internet as a field.

Keywords: Social Experiment; Field Experiment; Internet; Methodology; Randomized Assignment. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C70 C90 C93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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http://ifs.u-strasbg.fr/large/publications/2012/2012-10.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment (2015)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment (2015)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment (2015)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: a randomized experiment (2015)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: A randomized experiment (2012)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: A randomized experiment (2012)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: A randomized experiment (2012)
Working Paper: Social preferences in the online laboratory: A randomized experiment (2012)
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