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Building social cohesion through virtual intergroup contact: Mobile app experiment in Bangladesh

Last registered on December 20, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Building social cohesion through online shared collective experiences: Mobile app experiment in Bangladesh
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012425
Initial registration date
December 14, 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
December 20, 2023, 1:59 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Bangladesh
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Ryo Takahashi
Affiliation
Waseda University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Keisaku Higashida
PI Affiliation
Kwansei Gakuin University
PI Name
Yuki Higuchi
PI Affiliation
Sophia University
PI Name
Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain
PI Affiliation
University of Chittagong
PI Name
Kazi Nazrul Islam
PI Affiliation
University of Chittagong
PI Name
Mohammad Sujauddin
PI Affiliation
North South University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-12-17
End date
2024-03-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
refugee, social cohesion
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In order to achieve nation-building and sustainable development, it is important to build social cohesion between groups with different social identities. In particular, building social cohesion becomes critically important for countries receiving significant numbers of displaced people and refugees. To effectively nurture social cohesion, recent literature focused on shared collective experiences among different groups. For example, Depetris-Chauvin et al. (2020) indicated that shared collective experiences created by sporting achievements, such as winning in international football competitions, strengthened nation-level social cohesion. Mousa (2020) found that shared experience of sports play stimulated tolerant behaviors toward another religious group. In contrast, the recent advances in information and communication technology has made it possible to generate shared collective experiences through online interactions (e.g., playing online games together). However, it remains unclear whether online shared experiences can stimulate social cohesion among groups with different social identities.
We hypothesize that social cohesion between groups with different social identities can be built by shared experiences through virtual interaction. To examine our hypothesis, we will develop an original mobile game application (app) and conduct a randomized experiment in Bangladesh, the largest hosting country of Rohingya refugees. In this experiment, we investigate whether shared experiences through online games stimulate the tolerant behavior of the hosts toward Rohingya refugees.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Higashida, Keisaku et al. 2023. "Building social cohesion through online shared collective experiences: Mobile app experiment in Bangladesh." AEA RCT Registry. December 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12425-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will develop an original mobile game application (app) and conduct a randomized experiment in Bangladesh. In the game, players will form a group and collaboratively manage a fruit farm.
Intervention Start Date
2023-12-25
Intervention End Date
2024-02-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome variable is the behavior in the JoD minigame.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
In the JoD, we ask the participants how much they are willing to reduce the donation for Rohingya refugees at a personal cost. Participants will be informed that a a donation of 400 BDT will be made to an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working in the refugee camp. However, the identity and specific activities of the NGO will not be disclosed. Following this, participants will be given the choice to use a portion of their 100 BDT survey participation fee to reduce the donation amount. The payment is in discrete choices of 0, 20, 40, 60, or 80 BDT, with every unit of BDT paid resulting in five times that amount deducted from the donation. This amount is indeed deducted from their survey participation fee of 100 BDT. As the JoD section will be included in both baseline and endline surveys, we can create a panel data set for the JoD.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We plan to recruit up to 2,004 smartphone users in Bangladesh. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the four treatment arms or the control group prior to the beginning of the game. Each group will consist of 400 to 402 participants.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization will be done in the app using random numbers.
Randomization Unit
The randomization is at the player level without any stratification.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2,004 smartphone users
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,004 smartphone users
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Each group will consist of 400 to 402 participants.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
In our previous study (Higuchi et al. 2023), we conducted the Joy-of-Destruction (JoD) game in 2020 with 1,679 households in Bangladesh, using the same payment options as planned for this study. The mean payment observed was 23.9 BDT, with a standard deviation of 28.1. For the current study, we have calculated the power and minimum detectable effect (MDE). With an established false discovery rate of 0.05 and a power of 0.80, our analysis suggests that for the comparison between Treatment 1 and the control group, having approximately 400 participants in each group is optimal. This leads to a planned total sample size of 800. With this sample size, the estimated MDE is 0.20, which translates to about 5.6 BDT, based on the results from our previous study. We consider this MDE to be reasonable for the current experiment. Our previous research demonstrated that being one standard deviation farther from the refugee camp increased the amount paid in the JoD game by up to 7.5 BDT. Therefore, an MDE of 5.6 BDT, with the set parameters for false discovery rate and power, seems within a sensible range to detect significant effects in our study. Higuchi, Y., K. Higashida, M.M. Hossain, M. Sujauddin, R. Takahashi, and K. Tanaka. 2023. From Hospitality to Hostility: Impact of the Rohingya Refugee Influx on the Sentiments of Host Communities. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4348051
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Review Committee on Research with Human Subjects of Waseda University
IRB Approval Date
2022-11-23
IRB Approval Number
2022-392
Analysis Plan

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