Prejudice and attitudes against immigrants: a perspective-taking intervention in high schools in italy

The intervention is inspired by the “Migration au délà des prejudges – MADP “ (Migration, beyond prejudice) program, which was first launched in 2015 in Belgium, in a context described as a “migration crisis.” The MADP program aimed to foster intercultural dialogue and social inclusion among youths through activities that encourage participants to break down stereotypes and consider cultural diversity and integration as a value. The original tools and activities were developed around the principle of ‘active learning’ by a multi-disciplinary group of social scientists, pedagogical consultants, and multimedia developers and were implemented by volunteers trained and supported by two Belgian non-profit organizations (ULB Engagée and Jagora). Although anecdotally very successful, the original program was never rigorously studied.

The intervention studied in this project is the Italian adaptation of the MADP program. The implementation is managed by the Italian-based NGO Helpcode, whose members have closely interacted with the Belgian team. The program maintains its original focus on active learning and is structured into four main activities that are expected to lead students to reflect on topics such as hacking stereotypes, prejudices, and xenophobia.

The program will be delivered in two sessions of 3 hours each (6 hours in total), delivered during regular school hours, by teams of two people: a Helpcode staff member and a university student recruited from the universities of Milan and Genova. University students will undergo a 2-day training and are expected to support implementation by introducing a component of peer-to-peer dialogue and education with the target students. Each session will involve two activities. Students will be encouraged to share their reflections and experiences in the process as a source of learning within the group and to allow for the co-construction of knowledge and collective learning. As part of the activities, objective data about migration patterns and refugees will also be shared and discussed with the students.

The program is expected to improve attitudes towards migration and diversity and influence a wide range of behaviors related to out-group perception and integration. The main steps underlying the theory of change that we will assess through the study, are:
1. the program delivered in the classes is expected to induce students to think about and discuss among peers issues related to cultural diversity and integration;
2. These meetings and discussions are expected to increase students’ knowledge of the facts related to immigration in Italy and to improve their understanding of immigrants’ perspectives, cultures, and associated challenges;
3. Such improved knowledge and understanding is expected to influence the attitude towards immigrants, reducing prejudices and discrimination sentiments;
4. Finally, this change in attitude is expected to translate into more open and positive behavior toward immigrants.

2023-02-01

2023-06-01

Attitudes towards migrants as measured through:
- Implicit Association Test;
- self-reported attitudes;
- willingness to donate to a humanitarian NGO that works with migrants;
- willingness to participate in voluntary activities with migrants;
- behavioral game (ultimatum) where participants are paired with players of different origins.
We also anticipate testing for heterogeneity of the impact based on:
- class composition
- baseline exposure to migrants
- gender
- italian/foreign origin

Knowledge of migration facts and data; Empathy towards migrants (PCA index); Discrimination episodes

The project will be evaluated using the RCT methodology. The evaluation will take advantage of the fact that the limited resources available to the organization do not allow the program to be implemented in more than 120 classes during this initial phase. The study will therefore randomize which classes are to host the program first (treatment group) and which classes are instead not going to host the program at this stage (control group), but might receive it at a later stage (after the end of the research study), depending on the success of the program and on funding availability.

The study sample is represented by the 40 schools in the provinces of Milan and Genova that have flagged their interest in hosting the program. On average, each school identified 6 classes, for a total of 240 classes. Within each school, we will randomly allocate half of the classes to the treatment group and half to the control group.

As the program will take place during regular school hours, every student in the treatment classes will be expected to attend the program activities. The activities will be implemented in the school building. Classes in the control group will continue their activities as usual and will not host any diversity training during the study period.

The analysis will then be based on two main rounds of data collection. Baseline data will be collected at the onset of the study (before any activity is implemented). The baseline data will be important and interesting per-se to get an up-to-date picture of prevailing views and attitudes towards migrants among students in Italian high schools. The program will then be implemented in the treatment group after baseline data collection is completed. Endline data collection will take place roughly 6 months after baseline. Endline data collection will involve the same children, surveyed at baseline and will mirror the baseline data collection in its structures. The data will allow us to measure the causal effect of the program by comparing outcomes in the treatment and control groups. The data collection will be primarily based on a survey administered to every student through digital tablets, under the supervision of trained enumerators, after obtaining informed consent from participants.

The randomizations will be implemented using a random number generator on a computer.

The unit of randomization will be the class. Each class in the sample hosts between 15 and 25 students.

Yes

240 classes, across 40 schools

With an expected average of 17 students per class, we plan to survey at baseline a total of 4,080 students.

120 classes, across 40 schools

Based on our power calculations, the proposed sample of 120 classes per study arm (i.e. 240 in total) and 17 students per class at baseline (i.e. 4,080 in total), will enable us to detect at the 5% significance level with 80% power an effect of the intervention on our primary outcome of interest equal to 0.2 standard deviations or larger, under the assumption of intra-cluster-correlation equal to 0.18 and attrition equal to 10%.