Stigma and Social Safety Net Program Participation

There are three intervention groups and one control group. The control group will receive no intervention during the survey.

2023-09-18

2024-01-18

Stigmatizing attitudes index, overall perceived stigma index, demonstrated interest in enrolling in SNAP, and second-order beliefs questions.

Stigmatizing attitudes index: The mean of answers to the following questions: Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many… (a) do you think should avoid telling other people that they receive SNAP; (b) would you judge negatively if you noticed them using SNAP in the grocery store; (c) would you look down on because they receive SNAP; (d) do you think are less motivated to work because they receive SNAP; and (e) do you think would be taking the place of someone who needs SNAP more than they do.

Overall perceived stigma index: The mean of answers to the questions in the self stigma and perceived external stigma indices. (See below.)

Demonstrated interest in enrolling in SNAP is measured by a dummy variable which equals 1 if the survey respondent clicked a link to take a quiz to check their household’s SNAP eligibility status, and 0 otherwise. This is meant to capture a real-world outcome: a first step towards applying for SNAP.

Second-order beliefs questions: Respondents are asked to estimate the average response of other survey respondents to the following two questions: (1) Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many do you think are less motivated to work because they receive SNAP? and (2) Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many would you judge negatively if you noticed them using SNAP in the grocery store?

Self stigma index, perceived external stigma index. Perceived overall stigma views and stigmatizing attitude individual questions. Also, measures for the first stage impacts of the interventions. Pending data access, outcomes of the eligibility screener. Support for SNAP spending (wave 2 only).

Self stigma index: The mean of answers to the following questions (with slight variations on question wordings based on whether the respondent received SNAP before): (a) I would rather support myself than use SNAP. (b) Applying for SNAP made me think less of myself. (c) When I participate in SNAP, I avoid telling other people about it.

Perceived external stigma index: The mean of answers to the following questions (with slight variations on question wordings based on past receipt of SNAP): (a) Most people look down on me because I applied for SNAP. (b) If someone found out I applied for SNAP, they would think I lack work ethic. (c) Because I enrolled in SNAP, other people think I am taking the place of someone who needs benefits more than me.

Individual questions in the perceived overall stigma and stigmatizing attitudes indices listed above. We will use methods to correct for multiple hypothesis testing.

First-stage outcomes for misperception intervention: (1) Enrolling in SNAP makes me feel like I am taking the place of someone who needs benefits more than I do. (2) Because I enrolled in SNAP, other people think I am taking the place of someone who needs benefits more than me. (3) Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many… do you think would be taking the place of someone who needs SNAP more than they do.

First-stage outcomes for vignette interventions: Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many…(1) do you think are adult men; (2) adult women; and (3) children. Summary measures of text responses to the question: "Please briefly describe what you think of when you think of a typical household participating in SNAP."

First-stage outcomes for work vignette interventions: (1) Participating in SNAP makes me less motivated to work. (2) If someone found out I applied for SNAP, they would think I lack work ethic. (3) Out of 100 individuals receiving SNAP, how many…do you think are less motivated to work because they receive SNAP?

Outcomes of the eligibility screener may include: completed the screener, found eligible or found ineligible, started an application and submitted an application.

Support for SNAP spending: Asks respondent whether she prefers current levels of spending on SNAP, more, or less spending.

Our sample includes survey respondents from Prolific. The survey respondents will answer a series of questions at baseline. Demographic questions asked at baseline include household size, state of residence, and prior SNAP participation status. We also collect respondents’ general preferences for redistribution and a survey module designed to capture an individual's propensity to give socially desirable answers. At baseline, we also collect respondents’ perceptions about features of the SNAP program and recipient population. Key factual questions are incentivized to encourage respondents to report their best guess.

The respondents will then be randomly assigned into one of the four main treatment arms, stratified by prior SNAP participation status. There are four blocks or strata: current SNAP recipient, past SNAP recipient, never a SNAP recipient, or missing SNAP status. Conditional on the prior SNAP participation group, respondents are randomly assigned into one of the four treatment arms with equal probability. Respondents in each treatment group are shown only one piece of information described in the interventions section above; those in the control group are shown no information.

Then, survey respondents will answer the remaining survey questions. Questions provided after the intervention include the outcome questions described above and additional demographic questions.

Not available

Randomization will be done automatically by the Qualtrics online survey platform.

Individual survey respondents

No

1200 individual survey respondents

1200 individual survey respondents

300 control, 300 work vignette (150 work male, 150 work female), 300 family vignette (150 family male, 150 family female), 300 misperception correction