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Is There Selection Bias in Laboratory Experiments?

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  • Cleave, Blair L.
  • Nikiforakis, Nikos
  • Slonim, Robert

Abstract

Do the social and risk preferences of participants in laboratory experiments represent the preferences of the population from which they are recruited? To answer this question, we conducted a classroom experiment with a population of 1,173 students using a trust game and a lottery choice task to measure individual preferences. Separately, all 1,173 students were invited to participate in a laboratory experiment. To determine whether selection bias exists, we compare the preferences of the individuals who eventually participated in a laboratory experiment to those in the population. We find that the social and risk preferences of the students participating in the laboratory experiment are not significantly different from the preferences of the population from which they were recruited. We further show that participation decisions across most subgroups (e.g., men vs. women) do not differ significantly. We therefore fail to find selection bias based on social and risk preferences.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2123/6957
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by University of Sydney, School of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 2010-01.

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Date of creation: Oct 2010
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Handle: RePEc:syd:wpaper:2123/6957

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Keywords: external validity; social preferences; selection bias; laboratory experiments; risk preferences;

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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Is there really no selection bias in laboratory experiments?
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-01-07 16:31:00
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Cited by:
  1. Remoundou, Kyriaki & Drichoutis, Andreas & Koundouri, Phoebe, 2010. "Warm glow in charitable auctions: Are the WEIRDos driving the results?," MPRA Paper 25553, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  2. Robin P. Cubitt & Michalis Drouvelis & Simon Gaechter & Ruslan Kabalin, 2010. "Moral Judgments in Social Dilemmas: How Bad is Free Riding?," Discussion Papers 2010-18, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
  3. Ellen Garbarino & Robert Slonim & Justin Sydnor, 2011. "Digit ratios (2D:4D) as predictors of risky decision making for both sexes," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 1-26, February.
  4. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2013. "Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment," Working Papers 2013.05, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
  5. Stoop, Jan, 2012. "From the lab to the field: envelopes, dictators and manners," MPRA Paper 37048, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  6. Samuel Bowles & Sandra Polania-Reyes, 2011. "Economic incentives and social preferences: substitutes or complements?," Department of Economics University of Siena 617, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
  7. D Nosenzo & Jon Anderson & Stephen V Burks & Jeffrey Carpenter & Lorenz Gotte & Karsten Maurer & Ruth Potter & Kim Rocha & Aldo Rustichini, 2012. "Self-Selection and Variations in the Laboratory Measurment of Other-Regarding Preferences Across Subject Pools: Evidence from One College Student and Two Adult Samples," Discussion Papers 2012-14, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
  8. Slonim, Robert & Wang, Carmen & Garbarino, Ellen & Merrett, Danielle, 2012. "Opting-In: Participation Biases in the Lab," IZA Discussion Papers 6865, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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