Personal and societal conflict of redistributive principles and preferences

Last registered on August 16, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Personal and societal conflict of redistributive principles and preferences
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011927
Initial registration date
August 15, 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
August 16, 2023, 11:23 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Topi Miettinen
Affiliation
Hanken School of Economics & Helsinki GSE
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ola Andersson
PI Affiliation
Uppsala University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Marco Lambrecht
PI Affiliation
Hanken School of Economics & Helsinki GSE
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-08-27
End date
2022-10-03
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral, Other, Post-conflict, Welfare
Additional Keywords
social choice, Socratic method, policy preferences
JEL code(s)
C91, D63, D71, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Distributive justice principles (e.g. Rawlsian, Utilitarian or transfer principles), are central when arguing for practical economic policies. In a sample representative of UK population, we study conflict between one’s preferences over these principles and distributive choices (over income distributions). In case of conflict, we offer a revision stage and find that people not acting in line with their principles abandon their principles. However, the principle of making efficient transfers from richer to poorer (cf. Pigou-Dalton) is not abandoned and thus receives more robust support. Furthermore, resolving inconsistencies between one’s principles and choices reduces polarization in views about practical economic policies.
External Link(s)
OSF Preregistration

Registration Citation

Citation
Andersson, Ola, Marco Lambrecht and Topi Miettinen. 2023. "Personal and societal conflict of redistributive principles and preferences." AEA RCT Registry. August 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11927-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-08-27
Intervention End Date
2022-10-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Principle subscriptions
Policy preferences
Distributive choices
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Societal disagreement
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Building on the methodology of Nielsen and Rehbeck (2022), we ask from a positive perspective: What kind of sets of basic distributive social choice axioms people subscribe to? Which principles do their distributive choices respect? And if these are in conflict, how do people resolve such a conflict? Additionally, we correlate the preferred sets of axioms, preferred distributive choices, and the resolutions of conflict with demographics, political orientations, and redistributive policy preferences. We propose a basic typography of disagreement in society and investigate whether societal conflict is more or less pronounced when people have resolved their personal conflicts. We also shed light on differences across demographic groups.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer (within oTree)
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2295 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
2295 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50% Control, 50% Socratic treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See PAP file in OSF.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Hanken School of Economics Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2022-06-30
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials