NO DECEPTION.
The NYU Shanghai Behavior and Experimental Economics laboratory and subject pool cannot be affiliated with any experiment that involves deception. The laboratory is very concerned about developing and maintaining a reputation among the student population for honesty; this is to ensure that subject actions are motivated by induced monetary rewards rather than by psychological reactions to suspected manipulation. Subjects may suspect deception if it is present. Moreover, even if subjects fail to detect deception within a session, it may jeopardize future experiments if the subjects ever find out that they were deceived and report this information to their friends. Experiments that involve deception and then later truth-telling (i.e. debriefing) are also proscribed.
PREPARE FOR YOUR EXPERIMENT
IRB Approval. All experiments using the NYU Shanghai Behavior and Experimental Economics or subject pool must attain approval from Institutional Review Board (IRB), the University Committee on Activities Involving Human Subjects. For more information on this process please refer to the IRB website.
Participants Recruitment. Researchers are responsible for recruiting their own subjects. They need to make sure that their recruitment sticks to their approved protocol. The SHBEEL Recruitment Software (SONA System) is available to the IRB approved protocols which specify the lab’s participant database to recruit their subject (IRB Approval Letter Required). An IRB credit researcher may request a user account as researcher by complete the application form (IRB Approval Letter Required).
Lab Booking. Available NYU Shanghai Behavior and Experimental Economics lab blocks can be viewed on the Calendar page. If you need to book the whole laboratory for your experiment you will need to book this via the lab manager. Please be aware that the lab may be in use at other times. These times may be booked up to two weeks in advance. However, large bookings require the approval of the lab director, in particular during times of heavy lab use, to ensure that all experimenters are given an opportunity to run experiments.
Sessions Running. For each experimental session, at least one experimenter (you or another qualified person) must be in the laboratory during the whole period of the experiment.
ON THE EXPERIMENT DAY
Early Arrival. Experimenters must be at the NYU Shanghai Behavior and Experimental Economics lab at least thirty minutes before start time. Subjects often come early and the door must be opened for them so they can wait inside.
Lab Staff. Lab staff will help with technical problems encountered while using laboratory equipment or software. However, they will not assist in running any experiment.
AFTER THE EXPERIMENT
Cleanup. After using the NYU Shanghai Behavior and Experimental Economics lab we expect all researchers to leave it in the state it was in upon arrival. No experiment-related papers should be left on any desk, and all experiment-specific software and files should be removed from the computers.
MONETARY
Financial Reward. The minimum payment for the experiment (if completed) cannot be below RMB 30 per 90minutes. This is our baseline incentive used to get subjects to sign up for experiments; any lesser reward could cause attrition of our show-up rate and subject pool. Experiments in which payment is a function of the subjects’ actions should still adhere to this baseline rate through the use of a show-up payment, discussed below.
Show-up Payment. If a subject is signed up for an experiment and shows up to the lab, that subject must be paid, even if the subject is not needed for the experiment. This is to reward subjects for taking the effort to come and participate, critical for fostering a better relationship and show-up rate with the subject pool.