Author(s) This pre-registration is currently anonymous to enable blind peer-review. It has one author.
Pre-registered on 05/15/2019 05:06 AM (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? Hypothesis 1: Main effect: People who network (i.e., strategically approach someone) are more likely to experience guilt compared to people who do not network (i.e., spontaneously approach someone).
Hypothesis 2: Moderation effect: This effect will be attenuated when people are pro-socially motivated.
Hypothesis 3: Mediation effect: The increase in experienced guilt between people who strategically (vs. spontaneously) approach someone will be driven by an increase in how much they believe they objectify the target.
Hypothesis 4: Moderated mediation: The pathway between the increase in objectification and the increase in guilt will be moderated by people’s motive when networking. When people network with a pro-social motive, the link between objectification and feelings of guilt will be weaker than when they network with a pro-self motive.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. DV: Guilt: The average of 10 scale items measured on a 7-point scale from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
Mediator: Objectification: The average of 10 scale items measured on a 7-point scale from (1) strongly disagree to (7) strongly agree.
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? Participants will be randomly assigned to one of a four-cell between-subject design in which I manipulate two factors: Approach (spontaneous vs. strategic) and Motive (proself vs. prosocial). Participants will read a vignette corresponding to the condition they have been assigned, and will then answer the dependent measures.
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. Hypothesis 1 & 2: I will conduct a two-way ANOVA on the participants’ reported guilt.
Hypothesis 1 will be supported by a significant impact of Approach on Guilt: Participants’ level of Guilt should be greater in the “Strategic” than in the “Spontaneous” Approach condition.
Hypothesis 2 will be supported by a significant interaction between the two factors: The difference in Guilt between the “Strategic” and “Spontaneous” Approach condition should be lower in the “Prosocial” than in the “Proself” Motive condition.
Hypothesis 3: I will also run a mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro (Model 4, first edition). Hypothesis 3 will be supported by a significant indirect path between Approach and Guilt through Objectification.
Hypothesis 4: I will run a moderated mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro (Model 15, first edition). Hypothesis 4 will be supported by a significantly weaker indirect path between Approach and Guilt through Objectification in the “Prosocial” Motive condition (compared to the “Proself” Motive condition).
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. Comprehension checks: Participants will answer three questions testing their understanding of the vignette. Any participant failing one or more questions will be excluded prior to analysis.
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. I will stop data collection once 450 participants have submitted a response on Prolific. Any small deviation from this goal will be due to the Prolific platform and outside of my control.
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) To diagnose potential failures to detect the effect, the study will include several manipulation checks, testing that the vignettes had the intended effect on participants’ perception of the networking setting. Those measures will not be used in any of the main analysis.
In addition, the study will include an exploratory dependent measure, asking participants to indicate how likely they would be to behave as described in the vignette on a 7-point scale from (1) I would never behave in this way, to (7) I would definitely behave in this way.
Finally, the study will include demographics questions (gender, age, country, education, work experience) to know more about my sample. However, none of those variables will be used in any of the main analysis.
