Online Spending Game as a Behavioral Research Tool. Experiment at the Science Museum (London)
“Game of Life”, an interactive spending game played at Science Museum (London) build by Expilab investigates how and why we spend our money the way we do
TL;DR “Game of Life”, an online interactive economic game played by the visitors of Science Museum in London, aims to understand how and why we spend money.
Designed by Dr. Heather Kappes (LSE) and developed by Expilab, the game extends functionality of spending games typically played in laboratory settings, uses engaging visual design while maintaining tight control over experimental conditions and data collected.
Since January 2019, kids and grown-ups visiting Science Museum (London) have a chance to play an interactive online spending game ”Game of Life” developed by Expilab in the “Who am I?” gallery. Designed by Dr. Heather Kappes from London School of Economics and Political Science, the online spending game aims to shed some extra lights on understanding how and why we spend money.
Distressing fact is that many people across the world are living from paycheck to paycheck without saving enough not only for the future but also for emergencies. Earlier research shows that neither abundance of information nor financial training have impact on people’s financial decisions. Hence it is valuable to understand how and, particularly why this is happening.
We want to know, in a large and varied group of people of different ages, how choices about spending money are affected by things that are important in the real world, like how much you start off with, how regularly you get income, and how other people around you are spending their own money. Dr. Heather Kappes (LSE)
Online Spending Game as a Research Tool
As a research tool, the game developed by Expilab allows LSE scholars scientifically study spending behavior under controlled conditions with people ages 8 and up. The choice of the game format among other things was defined by the limitations of the field data where it can be difficult to identify the causes of the spending behavior(1) as well as by the opportunity to engage younger audience roaming around different galleries and events at the British Science museum during January and February of 2019.
It also needs to be noted that studying spending behavior using economics games is not new in academic research. Earlier studies (1, 2) explored such behavior in laboratory settings.
The “Game of Life” experiment was created and developed by Expilab team using our digital platform for behavioral experiments. Original research idea required implementation of the classical game not only in a new, visually more engaging format in online settings but also adapted for field testing using tablets. So during several months of 2018 Expilab’s researchers, graphical artists and web-developers worked on the design of the game characters (game avatars), visual styles, animations, sounds and game interactions.
From academic perspective, created game allows LSE’s research team collect extensive amount of behavioral data about player’s actions and choices (with millisecond precision), have a full experimental control of variables (e.g. income streams, timings, group feedback, randomization formats and more), support condition randomization as well as integrate complex survey instruments.
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Uri Gneezy is Renown scholar in individual decision-making and behavioral economics fields the Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Behavioral Economics and Professor of Economics & Strategy at the Rady School of Management, UC San Diego
Uri Gneezy is Renown scholar in individual decision-making and behavioral economics fields the Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Behavioral Economics and Professor of Economics & Strategy at the Rady School of Management, UC San Diego The Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, commonly referred to as Barcelona GSE, is an independent institution of research and graduate education located in Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. Banco Sabadell is the fourth-largest banking group funded by private Spanish capital. It includes several banks, brands, subsidiary and holding companies spanning the whole range of financial business.
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Expilab has found its new independent home, inheriting the expertise and team from Gravitas Research's Behavioral and Experimental Research group. Reflecting on our journey, including significant projects like NHS Choices with top institutions, we're proud of our growth and achievements. Last year, Expilab conducted large-scale experiments for the European Commission, engaging over 30,000 participants across 13 EU member states. Now, as a smaller, more flexible team, we look forward to innovative research and engaging with you through our new website and blog. Join us in exploring the future of behavioural research.
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Movers & Shakers interview with Dr. Heather Kappes (LSE) about how people spend, what economic research and economic experiments have taught us, and which research findings might be relevant for post COVID19 life.
“Game of Life”, an interactive spending game played at Science Museum (London) build by Expilab investigates how and why we spend our money the way we do
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