Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs

Christoph Huber; Anna Dreber; Jürgen Huber; Magnus Johannesson; Michael Kirchler; Utz Weitzel; Miguel Abellán; Xeniya Adayeva; Fehime Ceren Ay; Kai Barron; Zachariah Berry; Werner Bönte; Katharina Brütt; Muhammed Bulutay; Pol Campos-Mercade; Eric Cardella; Maria Almudena Claassen; Gert Cornelissen; Ian G J Dawson; Joyce Delnoij; Elif E Demiral; Eugen Dimant; Johannes Theodor Doerflinger; Malte Dold; Cécile Emery; Lenka Fiala; Susann Fiedler; Eleonora Freddi; Tilman Fries; Agata Gasiorowska; Ulrich Glogowsky; Paul M Gorny; Jeremy David Gretton; Antonia Grohmann; Sebastian Hafenbrädl; Michel Handgraaf; Yaniv Hanoch; Einav Hart; Max Hennig; Stanton Hudja; Mandy Hütter; Kyle Hyndman; Konstantinos Ioannidis; Ozan Isler; Sabrina Jeworrek; Daniel Jolles; Marie Juanchich; Raghabendra Pratap Kc; Menusch Khadjavi; Tamar Kugler; Shuwen Li; Brian Lucas; Vincent Mak; Mario Mechtel; Christoph Merkle; Ethan Andrew Meyers; Johanna Mollerstrom; Alexander Nesterov; Levent Neyse; Petra Nieken; Anne-Marie Nussberger; Helena Palumbo; Kim Peters; Angelo Pirrone; Xiangdong Qin; Rima Maria Rahal; Holger Rau; Johannes Rincke; Piero Ronzani; Yefim Roth; Ali Seyhun Saral; Jan Schmitz; Florian Schneider; Arthur Schram; Simeon Schudy; Maurice E Schweitzer; Christiane Schwieren; Irene Scopelliti; Miroslav Sirota; Joep Sonnemans; Ivan Soraperra; Lisa Spantig; Ivo Steimanis; Janina Steinmetz; Sigrid Suetens; Andriana Theodoropoulou; Diemo Urbig; Tobias Vorlaufer; Joschka Waibel; Daniel Woods; Ofir Yakobi; Onurcan Yilmaz; Tomasz Zaleskiewicz; Stefan Zeisberger; Felix Holzmeister

doi:10.1073/pnas.2215572120

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Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs

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Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs

Christoph Huber, Anna Dreber, Jürgen Huber, Magnus Johannesson, Michael Kirchler, Utz Weitzel, Miguel Abellán, Xeniya Adayeva, Fehime Ceren Ay, Kai Barron, …

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.120(23), e2215572120

2023-06-06

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215572120

PMID: 37252958

Abstract

generalizability

competition

moral behavior

metascience

Experimental Design

Does competition affect moral behavior? This fundamental question has been debated among leading scholars for centuries, and more recently, it has been tested in experimental studies yielding a body of rather inconclusive empirical evidence. A potential source of ambivalent empirical results on the same hypothesis is design heterogeneity-variation in true effect sizes across various reasonable experimental research protocols. To provide further evidence on whether competition affects moral behavior and to examine whether the generalizability of a single experimental study is jeopardized by design heterogeneity, we invited independent research teams to contribute experimental designs to a crowd-sourced project. In a large-scale online data collection, 18,123 experimental participants were randomly allocated to 45 randomly selected experimental designs out of 95 submitted designs. We find a small adverse effect of competition on moral behavior in a meta-analysis of the pooled data. The crowd-sourced design of our study allows for a clean identification and estimation of the variation in effect sizes above and beyond what could be expected due to sampling variance. We find substantial design heterogeneity-estimated to be about 1.6 times as large as the average standard error of effect size estimates of the 45 research designs-indicating that the informativeness and generalizability of results based on a single experimental design are limited. Drawing strong conclusions about the underlying hypotheses in the presence of substantive design heterogeneity requires moving toward much larger data collections on various experimental designs testing the same hypothesis.

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Title: Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs
Creators: Christoph Huber - Vienna University of Economics and Business
Anna Dreber - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Economics
Jürgen Huber - University of Innsbruck
Magnus Johannesson - Stockholm School of Economics, Department of Economics
Michael Kirchler - Universität Innsbruck
Utz Weitzel - Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Miguel Abellán - Leuphana University of Lüneburg
Xeniya Adayeva - HSE University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Fehime Ceren Ay - Telenor
Kai Barron - WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Zachariah Berry - New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Werner Bönte - University of Wuppertal
Katharina Brütt - University of Amsterdam
Muhammed Bulutay - Technische Universität Berlin
Pol Campos-Mercade - University of Copenhagen
Eric Cardella - Texas Tech University
Maria Almudena Claassen - University of Glasgow
Gert Cornelissen - UPF Barcelona School of Management, Barcelona, Spain
Ian G J Dawson - University of Southampton
Joyce Delnoij - Wageningen University & Research
Elif E Demiral - Austin Peay State University
Eugen Dimant - University of Pennsylvania
Johannes Theodor Doerflinger - University of Konstanz
Malte Dold - Pomona College
Cécile Emery - University of Exeter
Lenka Fiala - University of Bergen
Susann Fiedler - Institute for Cognition and Behavior, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria
Eleonora Freddi - FAIR - The Choice Lab, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway
Tilman Fries - WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Agata Gasiorowska - Uniwersytet SWPS
Ulrich Glogowsky - Johannes Kepler University of Linz
Paul M Gorny - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Jeremy David Gretton - University of Waterloo
Antonia Grohmann - Aarhus University
Sebastian Hafenbrädl - EAE Business School
Michel Handgraaf - AMS Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Yaniv Hanoch - University of Southampton
Einav Hart - George Mason University
Max Hennig - University of Tübingen
Stanton Hudja - Baylor University
Mandy Hütter - University of Tübingen
Kyle Hyndman - The University of Texas at Dallas
Konstantinos Ioannidis - University of Amsterdam
Ozan Isler - Queensland University of Technology
Sabrina Jeworrek - Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Daniel Jolles - University of Essex
Marie Juanchich - University of Essex
Raghabendra Pratap Kc - Rollins College
Menusch Khadjavi - Tinbergen Institute
Tamar Kugler - University of Arizona
Shuwen Li - Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Brian Lucas - New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Vincent Mak - Cambridge School
Mario Mechtel - Leuphana University of Lüneburg
Christoph Merkle - Aarhus University
Ethan Andrew Meyers - University of Waterloo
Johanna Mollerstrom - Research Institute for Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm, Sweden
Alexander Nesterov - HSE University, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Levent Neyse - WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Petra Nieken - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Anne-Marie Nussberger - Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Helena Palumbo - Pompeu Fabra University
Kim Peters - University of Exeter
Angelo Pirrone - London School of Economics and Political Science
Xiangdong Qin - Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Rima Maria Rahal - Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany
Holger Rau - University of Göttingen
Johannes Rincke - Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Piero Ronzani - International Security and Development Center
Yefim Roth - University of Haifa
Ali Seyhun Saral - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
Jan Schmitz - Radboud University Nijmegen
Florian Schneider - University of Zurich
Arthur Schram - University of Amsterdam
Simeon Schudy - Ifo Institute for Economic Research
Maurice E Schweitzer - University of Pennsylvania
Christiane Schwieren - Heidelberg University
Irene Scopelliti - City, University of London
Miroslav Sirota - University of Essex
Joep Sonnemans - University of Amsterdam
Ivan Soraperra - University of Amsterdam
Lisa Spantig - RWTH Aachen University
Ivo Steimanis - Philipps University of Marburg
Janina Steinmetz - City, University of London
Sigrid Suetens - Tilburg University
Andriana Theodoropoulou - University of Essex
Diemo Urbig - Indiana University Bloomington
Tobias Vorlaufer - Osnabrück University
Joschka Waibel - University of Essex
Daniel Woods - Universität Innsbruck
Ofir Yakobi - University of Waterloo
Onurcan Yilmaz - Kadir Has University
Tomasz Zaleskiewicz - Uniwersytet SWPS
Stefan Zeisberger - Radboud University Nijmegen
Felix Holzmeister - Universität Innsbruck
Publication Details: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, Vol.120(23), e2215572120
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Academic Unit: Department of Economics
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

Competition and moral behavior: A meta-analysis of forty-five crowd-sourced experimental designs

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