Abstract
We investigate the effect of a full week of sleep restriction (SR) vs. well-restedness (WR) on contributions in a common public good experiment, the voluntary contributions mechanism (VCM). We examine the effect of sleep manipulation on decisions regarding both contributions and punishment of non-contributors. Actigraphy devices are used to confirm that our random assignment to sleep condition generates significant differences in objective nightly sleep duration and sleepiness. We find that when punishment is unavailable public good contributions do not differ by SR/WR assignment. When punishment is available, we find evidence that SR subjects contribute more than WR subjects, respond more to the availability of punishment than do WR subjects, and that the availability of punishment significantly increases the contributions of SR but not WR subjects. Yet SR subjects do not punish others more or less than WR subjects. Our main findings are robust when considering compliance and sample selection. However, some findings are not robust to an alternative but less objective sleep control measure that is based partly on participants' self-identified optimal sleep levels.
Highlights
According to the National Health Interview Survey, American adults’ age adjusted average daily sleep fell from 7.40 hours in 1985 to 7.18 hours in 2004, holding steady at that level in 2012
We found that Sleep Restricted (SR) and WR subjects did not differ in public good contributions when peer punishment was unavailable, but some evidence that SR’s contributed more when it is
What effects could such mild but persistent sleep restriction have on people’s contributions to public goods for the home, community, or workplace? We examined the effect of a one-week sleep manipulation protocol on subjects’ subsequent choices in a voluntary contribution mechanism (VCM) public good experiment, with and without the option of costly peer punishment
Summary
According to the National Health Interview Survey, American adults’ age adjusted average daily sleep fell from 7.40 hours in 1985 to 7.18 hours in 2004, holding steady at that level in 2012. Some researchers suggest a bifurcation in sleep trends, with overall average sleep estimates remaining steady or rising, while the proportion getting less than 6 hours has increased [2]. This paper provides the first evidence of the impact of persistent mild sleep restriction vs well-restedness on group cooperation and norm enforcement in a well-known social dilemma: the voluntary contributions mechanism (VCM) with peer punishment. Some results were sensitive to our use of Personal SD rather than binary SR assignment to control for sleep levels, or sensitive to conditioning our analysis on whether subjects met some standard of compliance with the prescribed sleep levels These sensitivities, as well as some other suggestive results, are discussed in detail later.
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