Experimental Design
We propose a clustered randomized controlled trial in which we expose participants to one out of three versions of the same soap opera: The first version is designed to change social norms that justify IPV to control behaviors that are seen as undesirable (“norms campaign kit”). The second version features anger management and non-violent coping skills (“resilience campaign kit”) designed to increase men’s resilience to acute stressors that may trigger violent impulses. The third version is a placebo treatment that delivers messages unrelated to intimate partner violence (“placebo campaign kit”). We further randomize whether participants in either the norms or placebo treatments are exposed to the campaign kits privately, on a small electronic device, or publicly, in a community setting.
We aim to test for heterogeneity by income, and baseline norms. We elicit baseline norms through vignette-style stories, in which either a high- or low-income husband instructs his wife not to do a certain action, which she might or might not follow. We elicit respondents’ first- and second-order beliefs about the likelihood and social acceptability of disciplining in the case that the wife does or does not follow the husband’s instruction. This will allow us to measure community-level norms about violence. We will test for heterogeneity by these norms if we find meaningful baseline variation.