Experiment Participation Consent Form

Welcome. The following information is provided to inform you about the research project and your participation in the study. Please read this form carefully.

The experiment you are about to participate in is part of a research project conducted by Professor Mike Shor of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. The purpose of this research is to understand bidder behavior in various auction environments. The experiment involves no deception or misrepresentation on the part of the experimenter, nor is there any pain or discomfort involved. You will be asked to "bid" on a number of objects against other participants. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research subject, please contact the faculty member, Mike Shor, at (615) 343-4334. If you have general questions about giving consent or your rights as a participant in this study you can call the Vanderbilt Institutional Review Board Office at (615) 322-2918 or toll-free at (866) 224-8273.

The expected duration of your participation in this experiment is approximately forty five minutes. Efforts will be made to keep the personal information you provide private and confidential but absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. Your personal information may be disclosed if required by law. However, the specific data collected during the experiment (including the choices and decisions that you make) cannot be linked back to any specific participant. You will be asked to provide two types of information. First, personally identifiable information including your name, address, and social security number, will be included on the receipt that you will be asked to sign, indicating that you have received payment for your participation. Second, we will record your decisions in this experiment. The personal information that you provide on the receipt for payment is separate from the records which will contain your decisions. Further, immediately following this session, the decisions that you made are entered into a database without any identifying information, and the original records of your decisions are destroyed.

Your participation in this experiment will not affect your grade in any course (if you were recruited from a course). Your participation in this experiment is voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time without prejudice. You may earn between $5 and $40, with the average student earning about $20, depending partly on your performance in the experiment, partly on the behavior of other participants, and partly upon random luck. You will be paid at the conclusion of this session. If you are unwilling to let us use your bids for economic research, you may withdraw now or at any time during the experiment. If you withdraw from the experiment before the session is over, you will forfeit any potential earnings.

To participate, you should agree with the following: I have read and understand the above description of the experiment and understand the procedures to be followed. All my questions concerning any aspect of the experiment have been answered, and I freely and voluntarily choose to participate. I understand that I may withdraw at any time.