Data and Code for: Reference Dependence and Attribution Bias: Evidence from Real-Effort Experiments

Data and code for "Reference Dependence and Attribution Bias: Evidence from Real-Effort Experiments. AEJ: Microeconomics.<br><br><b>Abstract: </b>We demonstrate that people’s impressions of a real-effort task areshaped by the elation or disappointment they felt when first working onthe task. In our experiments, participants learned from experience abouttwo unfamiliar tasks, one more onerous than the other. We manipulated expectations about which task they would face: some participants were assigned their task by chance, while others knew their assignment in advance. Hours later, we elicited those participants’ willingness to workagain on that same task. Participants assigned the less (more) onerous task by chance were more (less) willing to work than those who knew their assignment in advance. These qualitative results are consistent with a form of attribution bias wherein participants wrongly ascribed sensations of positive or negative surprise to the underlying disutility of their assigned task