Experimental Design
We collect survey data on people’s beliefs about the extent of labor market discrimination against women with a Turkish background in Germany and examine to what extent these beliefs drive support for antidiscrimination (i.e, affirmative action) policies.
The experiment proceeds in two waves. In the first wave of the experiment, we elicit prior beliefs from all subjects about the extent of discrimination against female applicants with a Turkish background in the German labor market. We also elicit post beliefs in the first wave in another market, namely, the carpooling market, to check if there are short-term belief updates based on the information provision. Furthermore, we include questions about support for anti-discrimination policies. In the second wave, we ask again the same questions about beliefs about hiring discrimination in the labor market and their policy support questions.
In the first wave, we elicit prior beliefs distinguishing between beliefs attributed to the Turkish background and beliefs attributed to presumed religious affiliation. We present respondents with the same profiles used in the correspondence study by Weichselbaumer (2020), which we use as a benchmark for objectively measured callback discrimination. The Turkish background is signaled through the name of the applicant while all other characteristics that are part of the job application are held constant (including qualifications, age, German nationality, and photograph).
We present respondents with hypothetical job applicants who are identical in all dimensions except either their name or their profile picture. We inform them about the callback rate for the reference scenario of a female applicant aged 27 with a German-sounding name. Respondents are asked to estimate the callback rate for another candidate for whom a Turkish background is signaled through the name while all other characteristics are held constant. Using the same procedure, we isolate the specific role of religion by assessing beliefs about the callback rate for a third candidate with the same Turkish-sounding name with photographs showing the same candidate with headscarf (candidate C). She is again compared to the same candidate with a German-sounding name and without headscarf.
After the prior-belief elicitation, a random subset of subjects (the treatment group) receives information about the true results from the correspondence study by Weichselbaumer (2020). The remaining subjects constitute the control group and do not receive any information from the research article. Instead, they receive a general article about gender differences in the labor market.
Subsequently, we measure post-treatment belief updates using explicit questions on beliefs about discrimination as well as results from a different correspondence study and assess preferences for antidiscrimination (affirmative action) policies.
To reduce concerns regarding anchoring, we elicit post-treatment beliefs in the first wave in another market, namely, carpooling. This question uses a smaller range and success rates are much higher than in the job application study. These differences should make anchoring more difficult for respondents. In the second wave of the experiment, two weeks after the first wave, we measure again beliefs about hiring discrimination in the labor market and we elicit our subjects’ views regarding antidiscrimination policies. This second wave allows us to verify the stability of belief updates in response to the information provision in the first wave and to mitigate concerns about pure experimenter-demand effects. In addition, it ensures that anchoring, if any, is mitigated.