Time Costs and Behaviour Across Participant Pools

Gonçalves, Duarte, Julen Zarate-Pina and Terri Kneeland

No 21932, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: University laboratory samples often produce cleaner experimental data than broader online samples such as Prolific. We examine whether this gap reflects differences in the opportunity cost of time. In an experiment spanning laboratory and online participant pools, we exogenously vary both the cost of deliberation and task complexity. Online participants are faster and less accurate at baseline. Raising time costs in the laboratory lowers accuracy, while reducing the return to answering quickly online improves it. Participant-pool differences arise where deliberation is both costly and productive, linking external validity to experimental design and task complexity.

Keywords: Participant pools; Online experiment; Response time; Costly Cognition; Complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D83 D90 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-09
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