Born That Way: Fairness Considerations about Genetics

Last registered on January 12, 2024

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Born That Way: Fairness Considerations about Genetics

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0012346

Initial registration date

January 12, 2024

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

January 12, 2024, 3:48 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Netherlands

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Andrea Pogliano

Affiliation

Erasmus University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-01-17

End date

2024-02-29

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

C90 C91 D63 D90 H23

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Meritocratic fairness dictates that rewards should be based on performance, while external circumstances should not be taken into account in the attribution of merit. However, it is often hard to disentangle performance and circumstances. An example of this is given by genetics, which can be thought of as a lottery happening at birth that has a considerable impact on later performance. I investigate whether individuals' fairness considerations are sensitive to differences in genetics. In an online incentivized experiment, third parties can redistribute earnings between two workers that performed a mathematical task. Across two treatments, beliefs about the importance of genetics in completing the mathematical task are modified through an information treatment.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Pogliano, Andrea. 2024. "Born That Way: Fairness Considerations about Genetics." AEA RCT Registry. January 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12346-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2024-01-18

Intervention End Date

2024-02-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Redistribution Decision in Task 2.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Score about importance of: genetics, control, responsibility, fairness
Redistribution Decision in Task 1
Petition Question
Beliefs about other traits
Answer to the Petition statement

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

I employ the paradigmatic spectator-worker design to (i) establish an experimentally controlled scenario of inequality between two workers and (ii) examine the money redistribution among spectators. This study centers on understanding how spectators make decisions regarding redistribution when presented with experimentally varied information about the influence of genetics on generating the observed inequality.

Experimental Design Details

Workers:
Workers are hired on Prolific and asked to complete 10 questions from the Arithmetic Reasoning and Mathematics Knowledge sections of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Afterward, workers are assigned to pairs and the better performer within the pair is assigned a bonus.

Spectators:
Spectators are hired on Prolific. Their main task is to redistribute the workers' earnings. They are asked to do so twice, once without any additional information and once after receiving information about the heritability of mathematical ability. The estimates about the heritability of mathematical ability are experimentally manipulated by providing different estimates from the genetic literature. Thus, the design systematically varies the beliefs of the individuals about the importance of genetics.

See the analysis plan for further details.

Randomization Method

Randomization is done by the Qualtric software in an online survey

Randomization Unit

individual

Was the treatment clustered?