Author(s) Gordon Kraft-Todd (Boston College) - gordon.kraft-todd@bc.edu Max Kleiman-Weiner (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) - maxkw@mit.edu Liane Young (Boston College) - liane.young@bc.edu
Pre-registered on 2020/11/24 - 05:24 PM (PT)
1) Have any data been collected for this study already? No, no data have been collected for this study yet.
2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study? Here, we are exploring how a generous actor’s moral goodness and trait generosity are affected by the observability of the actor's behavior (private vs. public) and their stipulated motivation (selfish vs. selfless). We predict: H1) when we only manipulate observability (Study 1), a generous actor’s moral goodness and trait generosity will be rated lower in the public compared to the private condition and H2) when we cross the observability and stipulated motivation manipulations (Study 2), a generous actor’s moral goodness and trait generosity will be rated lower in the selfish compared to the selfless condition, and H3) the main effect of observability in Study 2 will be significantly smaller than in Study 1. Crucially for H3, we will randomize subjects across Studies 1 and 2 simultaneously so this comparison can be made.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. We have two primary dependent measures: moral goodness (“How morally good is Jen?” measured with a 100-point unmarked slider scale with anchors at: 0 “extremely morally bad”; 50 “neither morally bad nor morally good”; and 100 “extremely morally good”), and trait generosity ratings (“How generous is Jen?” measured with a 100-point unmarked slider scale with anchors at 0 “not at all” and 100 “very much”).
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? Study 1: We will randomly assign participants to 1 of 2 between-subjects conditions (observability): whether the actor is described as engaging in generous behaviors 1) in public or 2) in private.
Study 2: We will randomly assign participants to 1 of 4 between-subjects conditions in a 2x2 design. One dimension is actor observability (public vs. private, as in Study 1) and the other is stipulated actor motivation: whether we describe the generous actor as having motivations that are 1) selfish vs. 2) selfless.
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. Study 1: We will conduct a multivariate regression comparing participants’ moral goodness and trait generosity ratings across the two conditions (public vs. private).
Study 2: We will conduct a multivariate regression predicting participants’ moral goodness and trait generosity ratings by the interaction of observability (public vs. private) and stipulated actor motivation (selfish vs. selfless). We will also conduct a Wald test to compare the size of the main effect of observability in this study to the size of the main effect of observability in Study 1 (with the prediction that the effect size in Study 1 will be significantly larger than in Study 2).
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. As a robustness check, we will test to ensure the results of the tests reported above hold in the subpopulation of our sample who correctly answer comprehension questions.
7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size? No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined. Study 1: n=100 per condition (n=200 total)
Study 2: n=100 per condition (n=400 total)
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) (nothing)
