ICES Experimental Economics Brown Bag Lecture
Cryptocurrencies: Experiments on Individual Attitudes and Perceptions
Monday, January 22, 2024 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), Room 5075
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) presents an ICES Brown Bag Lecture featuring:
George Mason University
Cryptocurrencies: Experiments on Individual Attitudes and Perceptions
Abstract
Cryptocurrencies are a part of new technologies that allow people to hold, trade, buy and sell digital tokens. While the number of cryptocurrency owners is increasing, there is some reluctance towards ownership. Through survey and lab experiments, we investigate factors that may impact the willingness to own cryptocurrencies. Our online survey experiment consists of 1,400 Americans and contains a mix of cryptocurrency owners and nonowners. With this survey, we identify characteristics of owners and nonowners of cryptocurrencies and use unincentivized measures of the willingness to own cryptocurrencies. We find that cryptocurrency owners are typically young males with a high tolerance for risk. It is generally understood that a barrier to adopting new technology is having some knowledge of it and how it works, which could account for some of the reluctance toward cryptocurrency adoption. To understand the types of knowledge required to encourage cryptocurrency use, we provide subjects in our survey with varying knowledge-based messages about cryptocurrencies and evaluate their willingness to own cryptocurrencies after reading the message. Our results indicate that brief messages concerning the ease of use of cryptocurrencies and the security features of cryptocurrencies are effective at increasing nonowners’ willingness to own cryptocurrencies in the short run. In related our related lab experiment, we recruit 121 subjects to test an incentivized willingness to own cryptocurrencies. We also measure whether receiving a small amount of Bitcoin can increase the willingness to own cryptocurrencies in the future and find some support for this. Our research is an introductory step in understanding the knowledge of and openness toward cryptocurrencies.
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