Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/250328 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Cardiff Economics Working Papers No. E2021/3
Publisher: 
Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
Abstract: 
Experimental social scientists working at research-intensive institutions deal inevitably with subjects who have most likely participated in previous experiments. It is an important methodological question to know whether participants that have acquired a high level of lab-sophistication show altered pro-social behavioral patterns. In this paper, we focus both on the potential effect of the subjects' lab-sophistication, and on the role of the knowledge about the level of lab-sophistication of the other participants. Our main findings show that while lab-sophistication per se does not significantly affect pro-social behaviour, for sophisticated sub-jects the knowledge about the counterpart's level of (un)sophistication may systematically alter their choices. This result should induce caution among experimenters about whether, in their settings, information about lab-sophistication can be inferred by the participants, due to the characteristics of the recruitment mechanisms, the management of the experimental sessions or to other contextual clues.
Subjects: 
Lab-sophistication
Experimental Methodology
External Validity
Pro-social behaviour
Cooperation
JEL: 
D03
D83
C91
C92
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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