Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  Migheli, Matteo
Author-Email: matteo.migheli@unito.it
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Turin
Author-Workplace-Homepage: http://www.est.unito.it/
Title: Reaction Times in a Field Experiment: Is Really All about Instinctiveness. 
Abstract: Several papers in experimental economics use reaction times (RTs) to assess whether a decision is instinctive or not.
This paper analyses a field experiment (the behaviour of athletes at the World Swimming Championships) in three
steps, where only the (expected) payoff changes (i.e. increases) from one step to the next. The payoff depends on 
the time of the race, of which the RT is part. Considering, for each competition, a homogeneous sample of swimmers, the
paper shows that RTs decrease as the expected payoff increase. The observed reductions are comparable in
magnitude to those observed in other experiments, where conscious/cognitive process are induced (or, at least,
present). The paper concludes claiming that a share of the observed RTs is determined through a cognitive process,
and therefore RTs are not pure measures of instinctiveness.  
Length: 20 pages
Creation-Date: 2014-09
File-URL: http://www.est.unito.it/do/home.pl/Download?doc=/allegati/wp2014dip/wp_24_2014.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:uto:dipeco:201424