<p>In experimental economics, the classic ways to measure/control for participants' social preferences are variants of the following games: </p>

<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ultimatum game</a> measures a participant's preference for fairness or justice. </li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator_game" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dictator game</a> measures a participant's other-regarding preference. </li>
<li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator_game#Variants" rel="nofollow noreferrer">trust game</a> measures the level of trust and trustworthiness among a group of participants. </li>
</ul>

<p>Risk preferences (and time preferences/impatience) can be elicited using either of the following: </p>

<ul>
<li>Multiple price lists (see <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282802762024700" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Holt &amp; Laury (2001)</a>) </li>
<li><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11166-013-9170-z" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BRET</a> (Bomb Risk Elicitation Task) </li>
<li>Convex Time Budget (CTB) method (for time preference, see <a href="https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/Publications/AER12-AS-Estimation.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Andreoni &amp; Sprenger (2012)</a>)</li>
</ul>

<p>The games other than CTB are simple enough to be ran in the "survey" form, e.g. with pencil/paper. There are also free computer programs (e.g. <a href="https://www.ztree.uzh.ch/en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">zTree</a>) that implement those games. </p>

<p>NB. If your main audience is economists, you'd also want to run these games in an <em>incentivzed</em> way, namely participants get paid and their earnings are directly related to their choices in those games. Responses to survey questions, especially the hypothetical type, do not get much credit from economists. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-13T17:12:15.017Z
2019-03-13T17:12:15.017Z
Herr K.
<p>When running an economics experiment, how and where are experimental graduate students supposed to obtain the surveys (such as standard measures of altruism, risk aversion, social dominance...) that often come at the end of experiments (so that researchers can "control for altruism" etc)? Do researchers purchase such measures / inventories, or are they part of the public domain and can be freely copied from previous research papers that use them? I am interested in using those from my own field as well as using one that is not from my own field (the Bem Sex Role Inventory) that appears to not be readily available online -- at least not for free.</p>

<experimental-economics>
How to obtain standard surveys / measures to use at end of experiment to "control for altruism" etc?
MadisonStevens
# How to obtain standard surveys / measures to use at end of experiment to "control for altruism" etc?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-13)

When running an economics experiment, how and where are experimental graduate students supposed to obtain the surveys (such as standard measures of altruism, risk aversion, social dominance...) that often come at the end of experiments (so that researchers can "control for altruism" etc)? Do researchers purchase such measures / inventories, or are they part of the public domain and can be freely copied from previous research papers that use them? I am interested in using those from my own field as well as using one that is not from my own field (the Bem Sex Role Inventory) that appears to not be readily available online -- at least not for free.

**Tags:** experimental-economics

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-03-13. Score: 1

In experimental economics, the classic ways to measure/control for participants' social preferences are variants of the following games:

* The [ultimatum game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimatum_game) measures a participant's preference for fairness or justice.
* The [dictator game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator_game) measures a participant's other-regarding preference.
* The [trust game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator_game#Variants) measures the level of trust and trustworthiness among a group of participants.

Risk preferences (and time preferences/impatience) can be elicited using either of the following:

* Multiple price lists (see [Holt & Laury (2001)](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/000282802762024700))
* [BRET](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11166-013-9170-z) (Bomb Risk Elicitation Task)
* Convex Time Budget (CTB) method (for time preference, see [Andreoni & Sprenger (2012)](https://econweb.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/Publications/AER12-AS-Estimation.pdf))

The games other than CTB are simple enough to be ran in the "survey" form, e.g. with pencil/paper. There are also free computer programs (e.g. [zTree](https://www.ztree.uzh.ch/en.html)) that implement those games.

NB. If your main audience is economists, you'd also want to run these games in an *incentivzed* way, namely participants get paid and their earnings are directly related to their choices in those games. Responses to survey questions, especially the hypothetical type, do not get much credit from economists.


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