Why do athletes cheat? The behavioral experiment on doping.

Methods

Summary

The experiment itself is being programmed in Z-tree, a C++ based software for economics experiments.

Preliminary experimental design: Players will play in groups of 5 the "reaction game" for 15 rounds. Every round will be composed of 3 screens. In the first one players will choose to dope (cheat) or not. They will be informed that this decision influences their final result by subtracting 15% of their final time in the reaction contest.

In the second screen subjects will play the game. By clicking on the red box the game will start. Subject has to wait till the color changes to green and react to this change as fast as possible. The time that elapses from the color change to a click is measured and displayed in the box.

The last (third) screen shows the final results. The most important here is the rank which determines his/her income in that round. Depending on the policy the player's income will be either transferred in a fund and will be paid back only if he/she is not caught or he/she will be paid directly (without possibility to lose this income in next rounds).