Behavioral researchers are increasingly conducting their studies online, to gain access to large and diverse samples that would be difficult to get in a laboratory environment. However, there are technical access barriers to building experiments online, and web browsers can present problems for consistent timing-an important issue with reaction-time-sensitive measures. For example, to ensure accuracy and test-retest reliability in presentation and response recording, experimenters need a working knowledge of programming languages such as JavaScript. We review some of the previous and current tools for online behavioral research, as well as how well they address the issues of usability and timing. We then present the Gorilla Experiment Builder (gorilla.sc), a fully tooled experiment authoring and deployment platform, designed to resolve many timing issues and make reliable online experimentation open and accessible to a wider range of technical abilities. To demonstrate the platform's aptitude for accessible, reliable, and scalable research, we administered a task with a range of participant groups (primary school children and adults), settings (without supervision, at home, and under supervision, in both schools and public engagement events), equipment (participant's own computer, computer supplied by the researcher), and connection types (personal internet connection, mobile phone 3G/4G). We used a simplified flanker task taken from the attentional network task (Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2004). We replicated the "conflict network" effect in all these populations, demonstrating the platform's capability to run reaction-time-sensitive experiments. Unresolved limitations of running experiments online are then discussed, along with potential solutions and some future features of the platform.

/pdf/gorilla-in-our-midst-an-online-behavioral-experiment-builder-3vrcmyrq9x.pdf

Gorilla in our Midst: An online behavioral experiment builder

Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals are aware of disease risk and alter their behaviour early in the pandemic. We investigated risk perception and self-reported engagement in protective behaviours in 1591 United States-based individuals cross-sectionally and longitudinally over the first week of the pandemic. Subjects demonstrated growing awareness of risk and reported engaging in protective behaviours with increasing frequency but underestimated their risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. Social distancing and hand washing were most strongly predicted by the perceived probability of personally being infected. However, a subgroup of individuals perceived low risk and did not engage in these behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of risk perception in early interventions during large-scale pandemics.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.200742

Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

The opportunity to profit from dishonesty evokes a motivational conflict between the temptation to cheat for selfish gain and the desire to act in a socially appropriate manner. Honesty may depend on self-control given that self-control is the capacity that enables people to override antisocial selfish responses in favor of socially desirable responses. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that dishonesty would increase when people’s self-control resources were depleted by an initial act of self-control. Depleted participants misrepresented their performance for monetary gain to a greater extent than did non-depleted participants (Experiment 1). Perhaps more troubling, depleted participants were more likely than non-depleted participants to expose themselves to the temptation to cheat, thereby aggravating the effects of depletion on cheating (Experiment 2). Results indicate that dishonesty increases when people’s capacity to exert self-control is impaired, and that people may be particularly vulnerable to this effect because they do not predict it.

Too tired to tell the truth: Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty

Behavioural researchers are increasingly conducting their studies online to gain access to large and diverse samples that would be difficult to get in a laboratory environment. However, there are technical access barriers to building experiments online, and web-browsers can present problems for consistent timing -- an important issue with reaction time-sensitive measures. For example, to ensure accuracy and test-retest reliability in presentation and response recording, experimenters need a working knowledge of programming languages such as JavaScript. We review some of the previous and current tools for online behavioural research, and how well they address the issues of usability and timing. We then present The Gorilla Experiment Builder (gorilla.sc) a fully tooled experiment authoring and deployment platform, designed to resolve many timing issues, and make reliable online experimentation open and accessible to a wider range of technical abilities. In order to demonstrate the platform's aptitude for accessible, reliable and scalable research, we administered the task with a range of participant groups (primary school children and adults), settings (without supervision, at home, and under supervision, in schools and public engagement events), equipment (own computers, computer supplied by researcher), and connection types (personal internet connection, mobile phone 3G/4G). We used a simplified flanker task, taken from the Attentional Networks task (Rueda et al., 2004). We replicated the 'conflict network' effect in all these populations, demonstrating the platform's capability to run reaction time-sensitive experiments. Unresolved limitations of running experiments online are then discussed, along with potential solutions, and some future features of the platform.

/pdf/gorilla-in-our-midst-an-online-behavioral-experiment-builder-46hbuxzu1h.pdf

By mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread to over 100 countries and all 50 states in the US. Government efforts to minimize the spread of disease emphasized behavioral interventions, including raising awareness of the disease and encouraging protective behaviors such as social distancing and hand washing, and seeking medical attention if experiencing symptoms. However, it is unclear to what extent individuals are aware of the risks associated with the disease, how they are altering their behavior, factors which could influence the spread of the virus to vulnerable populations. We characterized risk perception and engagement in preventative measures in 1591 United States based individuals over the first week of the pandemic (March 11th-16th 2020) and examined the extent to which protective behaviors are predicted by individuals’ perception of risk. Over 5 days, subjects demonstrated growing awareness of the risk posed by the virus, and largely reported engaging in protective behaviors with increasing frequency. However, they underestimated their personal risk of infection relative to the average person in the country. We found that engagement in social distancing and handwashing was most strongly predicted by the perceived likelihood of personally being infected, rather than likelihood of transmission or severity of potential transmitted infections. However, substantial variability emerged among individuals, and using data-driven methods we found a subgroup of subjects who are largely disengaged, unaware, and not practicing protective behaviors. Our results have implications for our understanding of how risk perception and protective behaviors can facilitate early interventions during large-scale pandemics.

/pdf/changes-in-risk-perception-and-protective-behavior-during-2e6u3nvnh3.pdf

Changes in risk perception and protective behavior during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

Prolific.ac—A subject pool for online experiments

Fishing in the same pool: Export strengths and competitiveness of China and Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe at the EU-15 market

To claim or not to claim: Anonymity, symmetric externalities and honesty

We investigate the impact of the emergence of China as a global competitor on the trade performance of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries at the EU-15 market. The paper takes a comprehensive approach in terms of empirical methods and data. We analyze export growth, export market shares, extensive and intensive margins and the number of trade links, applying highly disaggregated data at the 6 digit HS level over the period 1995 – 2010. We show that the most contested markets are those for capital goods and transport equipment, product categories where both regions have gained market shares and comparative advantage. We show that the number of trade links at the product level where both regions are active has increased substantially, indicating intensified competition. At the same time hardly any trade links were lost, which points against cut-throat competition between CESEE and China. The decomposition of export growth along the extensive versus the intensive margin shows that in line with the literature, the deepening of already existing trade relationships (i.e. the intensive margin) contributed most strongly export growth in both regions, whereas the contribution of new trade links (i.e. the extensive margin) had only a minor contribution, apart from the instance of EU accession which boosted the extensive margin considerably. We further decompose intensive margin growth into demand related structural effects and a supplier related competitiveness effect. Both the CESEE region and China successfully intensified their trade linkages above all as a result of their outstanding competitiveness as shown by the econometric shift-share analysis. While this suggests that both regions pursue a able export strategy, further diversification of production towards promising new industries and markets will become increasingly crucial for both, especially in face of projected slower EU-15 market growth in the longer run. JEL: F14, F15, O57

/pdf/fishing-in-the-same-pool-export-strengths-and-5191ve8e9e.pdf

Fishing in the same pool: Export strengths and competitiveness of China and CESEE at the EU-15 Market

We experimentally investigate time and path dependency in sequences of decisions about whether to be honest under a gain, a lottery and a loss framing. We find only small timing patterns over rounds, but clear evidence for more dishonesty after streaks of unfavorable outcomes. The latter implies a systematic path dependency in repeated honesty decisions. We observe an increase in dishonesty from gain to lottery and from lottery to loss framing. Increased dishonesty generally appears earlier and faster under a loss compared to a gain or a lottery frame. Surprisingly, the most honest participants are also those most clearly exhibiting path dependency in reports, in line with a behavior akin to "moral accounting".

Christian Schitter

Papers

Prolific.ac—A subject pool for online experiments

Fishing in the same pool: Export strengths and competitiveness of China and Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe at the EU-15 market

To claim or not to claim: Anonymity, symmetric externalities and honesty

Fishing in the same pool: Export strengths and competitiveness of China and CESEE at the EU-15 Market

Should I wait or should I lie? Path dependency and timing in repeated honesty decisions under frames