Investigating Dishonesty - Does Context Matter?

This research centers around two different research questions addressed in two experimental studies. In the first study, I estimate whether financial market saliency triggers dishonest behavior in an online experiment. More specifically, the experimental design allows to test whether participants are more honest when they are introduced to a financial market context as opposed to a neutral context. I use frame-specific randomization devices to vary the situational context of the game (i.e., stock market or neutral context). In the second study, I aim to find out whether the environment has an effect on dishonest behavior. In both studies, the dependent variable is the reported draw defined on the interval between 0 and 9 (variable name my_survey.1.player.outcome). I additionally capture the variation in behavior that is induced not only by the previously mentioned independent variables (i.e., financial market setting / environment), but also decision times (variable name seconds). Additional independent variables include age in years, dummies for being female, different study major. The variable my_survey.1.player.color captures treatment assignment (orange/yellow is financial market and black/white is random number treatment). The variable Lab is a dummy variable indicating whether subjects participated in the physical laboratory or from their homes.本研究围绕两项实验研究所覆盖的两个不同研究问题展开。第一项实验旨在评估金融市场显著性是否会引发线上实验中的不诚实行为。具体而言，本实验设计可检验参与者在被引入金融市场情境时，是否相较于中性情境更为诚实。本研究采用情境特异性随机化工具，以改变博弈的实验情境（即股票市场情境或中性情境）。第二项实验旨在探究环境是否会对不诚实行为产生影响。两项实验的因变量均为报告的抽取结果，其取值区间为0至9（变量名：my_survey.1.player.outcome）。本研究额外捕捉的行为变异不仅源自前述自变量（即金融市场情境/环境），还包括决策时长（变量名：seconds）所带来的差异。其余自变量包括以年为单位的年龄、性别虚拟变量、不同专业背景虚拟变量。变量my_survey.1.player.color用于表征处理组分配情况（橙色/黄色组为金融市场情境处理组，黑色/白色组为随机数处理组）。变量Lab为虚拟变量，用以标识受试者是参与线下实体实验室实验还是居家远程参与实验。