Working Papers
Talking to a Chatbot: AI Recommendations and Beliefs Updating
Job Market Paper
Abstract: This study investigates whether AI-powered chatbots are more persuasive than static sources of information. In a lab experiment, participants reported their beliefs about the correct answer to a series of logical reasoning questions both before and after receiving recommendations generated by the same AI model. In one treatment, participants received real-time recommendations from a chatbot, while in the other, they received static, pre-generated recommendations. The informational content of the recommendations, including both the recommended answers and the reasoning behind them, was distributionally matched across treatments. Participants who interacted with the chatbot were slightly more likely to update their beliefs following the AI recommendations, with a 31.46 percentage point change compared to 26.31 in the static treatment (p < 0.084). Further analyses reveal that the chatbot was especially persuasive among participants whose initial beliefs clashed with the recommendations.
Work in Progress
Monitoring as a Service
Abstract: Can a monitoring service help people mitigate procrastination and commit to their plans? I conducted a longitudinal real-effort experiment in which subjects were required to complete 80 tasks over three sessions in three weeks and make non-binding plans of how many tasks they want to complete in the subsequent two weeks. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a Control group or a Monitored group. In the Monitored group, after making their plans, subjects connected with a monitor via WhatsApp and were informed that their progress would be observed and that they would receive reminders to meet deadlines if they delayed their work. I found that the monitoring service improved the rate at which subjects met their plans by 12.75 percentage points (p < 0.05) and improved the completion rate of the experiment by 19.47 percentage points (p < 0.001). These effects were primarily driven by a reduction in dropout rates. Additionally, subjects who received the monitoring service delayed their starting time by more than an hour. Further research is needed to disentangle the specific role of reminders in this commitment device. Overall, the findings suggest that monitoring services can be an effective tool to mitigate procrastination and improve commitment.
Emotional Discrimination
(with Sigrid Suetens and Boris van Leeuwen)
Abstract: While ethnic discrimination is still a major concern, not much is known about the role of emotions on discrimination itself. We conducted an online experiment where native Dutch participants, playing the responder role, received a low offer from a proposer with either a native Dutch name or an ethnic minority name, and had to decide whether to accept or reject this low offer. Their emotions could be triggered in some treatments where they actually experienced the low offer before making a choice. We found that the responders did not discriminate nor react emotionally, as we did not find significant treatment effects on the rejection rate to the low offer.