1. Instructions for the lab experiment
General introduction read to participants[1]
Welcome to this experiment. My name is xxxx and I will be leading the experiment.
The results from this experiment will be used in a research project and it is therefore important that you all keep to the rules that have been handed out:
· You are not allowed to speak to other participants during the experiment.
· If you have any questions or problems during the experiment, then please raise your hand and we will come and assist you.
· You are not allowed to open any other internet pages than the ones we ask you to open.
If you violate any of these rules, you will have to leave the room. Short breaks might occur throughout the experiment and it is important that you remain quiet and orderly also during these breaks.
You will be completely anonymous in this experiment. At no point will you be asked who you are. Nor will it be possible for us, for the other participants or for anyone else to find out which choices you have made.
In this experiment you will be asked to make choices in several different situations. In each situation you will be randomly linked to another person. In some of the situations the other person will be another participant who is also in this room and who is an inmate at Bjørgvin Prison. In other situations you will be linked to participants who are in an identical room at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). All the participants at NHH are men aged between 18 and 60. They have been randomly selected from a representative sample of the population of Bergen and have accepted an invitation to participate in this experiment. The selection was made with the permission of the Norwegian Social Science Data Services and drawn from the Norwegian National Population Register. All the participants here at Bjørgvin Prison and at NHH will receive the same information and will be asked to make the same types of choices.
The actual payment that you will receive will be determined as follows: we randomly draw one of the situations you have been involved in and pay you the amount you earned in that particular situation. The choices that you make will not have any influence on which situation is picked out, it will be drawn at random and there is an equal chance for each situation to be picked. You must therefore think of each situation as if that is the one that determines how much you will earn.
When the experiment is finished, a payment code will appear on your screen. When you leave the premises after the experiment, you will be asked to quote your code and you will receive an envelope containing the amount of money you have earned. The envelopes will be prepared by persons who will not be present in the room when the envelopes are handed out. This is done so that no one will know how much each of you earns. The payment will be arranged in the same way for the participants at NHH. I will now explain what you are going to do first.
Instructions given on the computer[2]
(Screen 1)
The first thing you are going to do is to share an amount of money with another participant. You will not be told who the other person is, and the other person will not be told who you are. You will, however, be told whether the other participant is located in this room or at NHH. The amount to be shared is 1000 kroner and you must decide how you want to share this money between yourself and the other participant. Remember that this is actual money; the way in which you divide the money may determine how much you, and how much the other participant, will earn.
You will be asked to consider two such situations. In one of the situations you will meet a participant who is located here at Bjørgvin Prison, and in the other you will meet a participant who is located at NHH. In each situation you will be asked to choose between six different ways of sharing 1000 kroner between yourself and the other participant. After having registered your choice, a new screenshot will appear where you will be asked to confirm your choice or go back and change it. When you have confirmed both your choices you will be informed that you have completed the first part of the experiment. You can then relax while we wait for everyone to finish making their choices.
You will receive instructions about what to do on your computer, and, if you wish, you may have the instructions read out to you by putting on your ear phones and pressing a symbol in the right-hand corner of your screen. I would also like to remind you that if you have any problems or questions you can raise your hand and one of the researchers will come over and help you.
On your computer you will shortly see a new screenshot showing the first situation. You can then start making your choices.
(Screen 2)
You and another participant are sharing 1000 kroner.
You are located at Bjørgvin Prison, the other participant is located at Bjørgvin Prison.
You have been chosen to decide how the money will be divided. How much do you want to give to yourself and how much do you want to give to the other person?
Tick the option you wish to select and press the “Register” button.
Tick You The other participant
NOK 0 NOK 1000
NOK 200 NOK 800
NOK 400 NOK 600
NOK 600 NOK 400
NOK 800 NOK 200
NOK 1000 NOK 0
2. Instructions for the internet experiment
(Screen 1)
Instructions for the first part of the experiment
All participants are initially endowed with 75 DKK.
You are involved in 2 decision situations.
In every situation, you are randomly matched with another participant. (It is not the same participant.)
The one situation
In the one situation, you are the decision maker. You must decide how you wish to divide the total endowment that you and the other participant have been given (75+75=150 DKK), between the two of you.
The initial situation is shown below.
Continue >
(Screen 2)
The other situation
In the other situation, the other participant is the decision maker. In this situation, he or she must how he or she wishes to divide the total endowment, which the two of you have been given, between the two of you.
Outcome
One of the two situations will be randomly selected to determine payments. Both you and the other participant will be paid according to the decision made in this situation. It is equally likely that you will be paid according to the situation in which you are the decision maker as it is that you will be paid according to the situation in which the other participant is the decision maker.
< Go back Continue >
(Screen 3 – before pressing a radio button)
Your decision
Choose one of the options below and press Submit decision.
Division (you – the other) / You receive / The other receives / Your decision1 / 100%-0% / 150 DKK / 0 DKK
2 / 90%-10% / 135 DKK / 15 DKK
3 / 80%-20% / 120 DKK / 30 DKK
4 / 70%-30% / 105 DKK / 45 DKK
5 / 60%-40% / 90 DKK / 60 DKK
6 / 50%-50% / 75 DKK / 75 DKK
7 / 40%-60% / 60 DKK / 90 DKK
8 / 30%-70% / 45 DKK / 105 DKK
9 / 20%-80% / 30 DKK / 120 DKK
10 / 10%-90% / 15 DKK / 135 DKK
11 / 0%-100% / 0 DKK / 150 DKK
< See the instructions again Submit decision
(Screen 3 – after pressing a radio button)
Your decision
Choose one of the options below and press Submit decision.
Division (you – the other) / You receive / The other receives / Your decision1 / 100%-0% / 150 DKK / 0 DKK
2 / 90%-10% / 135 DKK / 15 DKK
3 / 80%-20% / 120 DKK / 30 DKK / X
4 / 70%-30% / 105 DKK / 45 DKK
5 / 60%-40% / 90 DKK / 60 DKK
6 / 50%-50% / 75 DKK / 75 DKK
7 / 40%-60% / 60 DKK / 90 DKK
8 / 30%-70% / 45 DKK / 105 DKK
9 / 20%-80% / 30 DKK / 120 DKK
10 / 10%-90% / 15 DKK / 135 DKK
11 / 0%-100% / 0 DKK / 150 DKK
< See the instructions again Submit decision
[1] All instructions were the same for participants in the prison group and in the benchmark group with the exception of the section where the other participants are described. The translation provides the text read to the prisoners, the corresponding text for the benchmark group was as follows: “In this experiment you will be asked to make choices in several different situations. In each situation you will be randomly linked to another person. In some of the situations the other person will be another participant who sits in another room here at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH). All the participants here at NHH are men aged between 18 and 60. They have been randomly selected from a representative sample of the population of Bergen and have accepted an invitation to participate in this experiment. The selection was made with the permission of the Norwegian Social Science Data Services and drawn from the Norwegian National Population Register. In other situations you will be linked to participants at Bjørgvin Prison who are serving sentences for criminal offences such as violence, drug-related offences, financial crime and driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. They have all accepted an invitation to participate in this experiment. All the participants at NHH and at Bjørgvin Prison will receive the same information and will be asked to make the same types of choices.”
[2] To prevent participants with poor reading skills from misunderstanding the written instructions, it was possible to listen to a pre-recorded version of the instructions on each screen using headsets available to all participants.