Do People Misreport in Strategy-Proof Mechanisms to Avoid Disappointment?

Disappointment aversion has been suggested as an explanation for preference misreporting in strategy-proof student-school matching mechanisms, as misreporting lowers expectations such that they are more likely to be fulfilled. We test this hypothesis using a novel experimental design with only two possible outcomes. This design eliminates game-form misperception, an important confound for disappointment aversion potentially present in other experiments. We find little evidence that disappointment aversion explains preference misreporting. Additionally, the truthtelling rates that we observe are high relative to the existing literature, indicating that misreporting in more elaborate settings is more likely caused by game-form misperception than disappointment aversion