Follow up to Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes

Last registered on April 26, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Follow up to Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011305

Initial registration date

April 20, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 26, 2023, 5:03 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Diego Ramos-Toro

Affiliation

Dartmouth College

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Elsa Voytas

PI Affiliation

IE University & Dartmouth College

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-04-24

End date

2024-01-19

Keywords

Behavior, Education, Electoral, Governance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.

Abstract

We describe the analysis plan for an online intervention designed to learn the historical views among different demographic groups in the US and to determine whether enquiring about these views has an effect on political attitudes and polarization. The study is a follow-up that builds on a previous round of data collection (AEARCTR-0009108), implementing the same methodology and asking similar questions from a different set of participants recruited through a different platform (Prolific). We will include new questions about the need to discuss historical and contemporary racial inequities in educational spaces, perceptions of racial inequities today, and agreement with historical narratives that were generated based on the previous round of data collection.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Ramos-Toro, Diego and Elsa Voytas. 2023. "Follow up to Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes ." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11305-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants will share their views on different historical issues before or after providing answers to other questions.

Intervention Start Date

2023-04-24

Intervention End Date

2023-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The main outcomes will be views on the following issues:

● Slavery as the main cause of the Civil War
● Progress in fulfilling the goals of the Civil Rights Movement
● The ongoing effect of slavery on racial inequities
● Degree of national pride
● Support for democracy as a system of government
● Support for capitalism as an economic system
● Support for gradual reform vs. substantial reform to ensure equal rights for all Americans
● Support for discussions of historical and contemporary racial inequities in educational spaces
● Agreement with historical narratives that we constructed based on open-ended responses from the previous round of data collection.
● Pro-sociality and proclivity to cooperate with different outgroups

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Participants will answer questions about their views and attitudes on various political issues before or after answering open-ended questions about the history of the United States.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization will be stratified by race-ideology, ensuring that 50% of African American respondents and 50% of white respondents answer questions about their political attitudes after answering questions about their historical views. The randomization will be implemented using Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

The randomization unit will be the individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

We will survey 1600 participants in this round and expect to pool these observations with those from the protocol conducted in 2022 (AEARCTR-0009108).

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1600

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB