Measuring costly effort using the slider task

Gill, David; Prowse, Victoria L.

doi:10.1016/j.jbef.2018.11.003

Cited by 54 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…The experiment consisted of a practice session and four tasks. To measure the level of the participants’ effort, we used the slider task 46 , because it allows for the precise elicitation of the participant’s effort level without the influence of pre-existing knowledge 47 . The wide-spread adoption of the slider task in recent experimental studies in economics underscores its suitability for the present experiment 48 – 50 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competitiveness and individual characteristics: a double-blind placebo-controlled study using oxytocin

Kurokawa

Kinari

Okudaira

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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oxytocin-enhanced prosocial behaviour depends on individual characteristics. this study investigated the relationship between oxytocin and competitiveness, which is another important social trait and predicts economic and social outcomes. in this double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled study of 192 male participants, we examined whether oxytocin moderates competitiveness and whether the effect of oxytocin on competitiveness is amplified in individuals with autistic traits. While our results show no relationship between oxytocin and competitiveness, we observed suggestive patterns: albeit not significantly, oxytocin reduced and enhanced competitiveness among participants without autistic traits and among their counterparts with autistic traits, respectively. While oxytocin reportedly enhances prosocial behaviours such as trust 1 , generosity 2 , and parochial altruism 3 , recent studies have shown this effect to depend on context and individual characteristics 4 like autistic traits 5 and baseline oxytocin levels 6. Hirosawa et al. 5 found that oxytocin induces prosocial behaviours in individuals with traits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) 7-i.e., low empathy quotient (EQ) 8 , high systemizing quotient (SQ) 9 , and high autism spectrum quotient (AQ) 10 scores 11-13. It is important to investigate for whom and in what aspects oxytocin can be effective, because oxytocin has clinical implications for people with ASD, who commonly show defects in social behaviour 14. The current study expands the literature on the behavioural effects of oxytocin in two ways. First, we tested whether oxytocin moderates the scantly investigated but important social trait of competitiveness; while the oxytocin literature shows a relative dearth concerning the potential effect of oxytocin on competitiveness, recent social science research finds that competitiveness can predict important economic and social outcomes 15-17. Second, we tested whether the effect of oxytocin is amplified in individuals with autistic traits. Experimentally, competitiveness can be measured according to a paradigm developed by Niederle and Vesterlund 18 : individuals choose a payment scheme between a piece-rate and a tournament environment. While the piece-rate environment is non-competitive, the tournament environment is competitive because one's payment depends on relative group performance. The tournament represents labour market outcomes, such as promotions and hiring. A growing body of literature focuses on the effects of external factors such as environment 19-21 , culture 22,23 , and internal factors such as hormones 24-27 and preferences 28,29 on competitiveness. Bartling et al. 28 found that individuals with higher personality trait scores for "agreeableness" were less likely to enter tournaments than to enter piece-rate schemes. These findings suggest a negative association between competitiveness and agreeableness, which has been found to relate to cooperative preferences 30 and prosocial behaviours, including trust and altruism...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competitiveness and individual characteristics: a double-blind placebo-controlled study using oxytocin

Kurokawa

Kinari

Okudaira

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Subjects are asked to complete the "slider task" introduced by Gill and Prowse [31] under a fixed pay scheme. The task consists of moving the mouse on a computer to adjust the cursor to a pre-specified position on a slider.…”

Section: Stage 1: Real-effort Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

To Wait or Not to Wait? Use of the Flexibility to Postpone Investment Decisions in Theory and in Practice

Morreale

Mittone

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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Business sustainability and real options are closely connected, as real options are managerial flexibility that allows organizations to adapt to changes in their environment, thus making the organization more robust and economically sustainable. Studies in real options theory abound, yet there is still a lack of evidence on whether people make decisions consistently with the predictions made by real options models. We run a laboratory experiment to study the role of option value and the laboratory time required to resolve uncertainty in individuals' decision to price and adopt an option to wait. Specifically, we compare decision makers' choices in two investment scenarios: One with a short time to maturity (implying a low option value), and another with a longer time to maturity (implying a high option value). In the lab, both scenarios are implemented with the waiting time of twenty and sixty minutes. Our results show that decision makers deviate from the theoretical predictions, recognizing the benefit of waiting, when the value of the option is higher, or when the waiting time is shorter. Our study does not only bring more insights into real options adoption at the individual level, but also emphasizes the great potential of behavioral and experimental approach to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the real options literature.

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“…Participants could change the pre-set amount simply by clicking on a box and entering the desired donation. STRONG DEFAULT : We again nudged participants into being fully pro-social by setting the default donation to the maximum possible amount that could be donated. In order to change the amount, participants first had to perform a slider task (Gill and Prowse, 2018). Specifically, to change the default donation, participants had to shift 48 sliders to a value of 50.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nudge for Good? Choice Defaults and Spillover Effects

2019

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Policy makers increasingly use choice defaults to promote “good” causes by influencing socially relevant decisions in desirable ways, e.g., to increase pro-environmental choices or pro-social behavior in general. Such default nudges are remarkably successful when judged by their effects on the targeted behaviors in isolation. However, there is scant knowledge about possible spillover effects of pro-social behavior that was induced by defaults on subsequent related choices. Behavioral spillover effects could eliminate or even reverse the initially positive effects of choice defaults, and it is thus important to study their significance. We report results from a laboratory experiment exploring the subsequent behavioral consequences of pro-social choice defaults. Our results are promising: Pro-social behavior induced by choice defaults does not result in adverse spillover effects on later, subsequent behavior. This finding holds for both weak and strong choice defaults. JEL Classification: C91, D01, D04

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Measuring costly effort using the slider task

Cited by 54 publications

References 65 publications

Competitiveness and individual characteristics: a double-blind placebo-controlled study using oxytocin

Competitiveness and individual characteristics: a double-blind placebo-controlled study using oxytocin

To Wait or Not to Wait? Use of the Flexibility to Postpone Investment Decisions in Theory and in Practice

Nudge for Good? Choice Defaults and Spillover Effects

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