Experimental Practices in Economics: A Challenge for Psychologists?

We discuss four key variables of experimental design that tend to be realized quite differently in economics and in areas of psychology relevant to both economists and psychologists, such as judgment and decision making. On theoretical and empirical grounds, we argue that these different realizations, which concern enactment of scripts, repetition of trials, performancebased monetary payments, and the use of deception, are bound to produce divergent experimental results. Furthermore, we argue that the wider range of experimental practices in psychology reflects a lack of procedural regularity that may contribute to the variability of empirical findings. We call for more research on the consequences of particular methodological preferences and to further this goal propose a “do-it-both-ways” rule. Experimental Practices 3