Norms and Behaviors around Son Preference in India

Last registered on September 12, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Norms and Behaviors around Son Preference in India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014132
Initial registration date
August 27, 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
September 12, 2024, 4:31 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Henrike Sternberg
Affiliation
Technical University of Munich
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Vasanthi Subramonia Pillai
PI Affiliation
Technical University of Munich
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-08-28
End date
2024-11-30
Keywords
Behavior, Gender
Additional Keywords
Household decision-making, Social Norms, Son preference
JEL code(s)
D13, D83, J13, J16, O12
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Gender discrimination remains a prevalent issue in India and worldwide. Its manifestation in the form of preferential treatment of sons versus daughters before birth (e.g., sex-selective abortion) and after birth (e.g., unequal educational investments) threatens gender equality and economic efficiency. While strong gender norms have been identified as one of the most important drivers of parental son preference, they are often misperceived by the population. For instance, Indian citizens drastically underestimate public support for affirmative action policies. Such misperceptions may also exist for gender norms about son preference, resulting in a state of pluralistic ignorance: A situation, where the majority of individuals in a group privately oppose a certain norm but, because they wrongly believe that all other group members support it, they end up acting in conformity with the norm rather than with their own conviction. This scoping study investigates the existence of misperceived norms in the context of son preference in India and its relationship with observed preferential treatment by parents.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sternberg, Henrike and Vasanthi Subramonia Pillai. 2024. "Norms and Behaviors around Son Preference in India ." AEA RCT Registry. September 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14132-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-08-28
Intervention End Date
2024-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The outcomes are intended to measure son preference of mothers and fathers in our samples, elicited in several different ways by employing a combination of incentivized choices, vignettes and simple survey questions.

Outcome 1: Decisions in behavioral game (Likelihood of choosing the boy or the girl child in several consecutive hypothetical scenarios). Scale from 1-4

Outcome 2: Proportion of true responses in double list experiment (son preference in educational investments). Scale: Proportion in control vs. treatment group

Outcome 3: Community-conditional son preference (reaction to hypothetical son's/daughter's socially undesirable behavior conditional on community knowing). Scale: 1-4

Outcome 4: Health and educational status of children (birthorder, number of siblings, school choice and fees)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will employ the different outcome variables to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the nature (degree and type) of son preference within the sample population. We will utilize principal component and/or factor analyses in order to learn about whether there are different types of son preference (e.g., before/after birth, education, health) and how they are related to each other. This approach allows us to construct the outcome variables correspondingly, reflecting the relevance and nature of the underlying types of son preference.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is cross-sectional and primarily aims to rigorously quantify, on the one hand, perceived and actual norms regarding son preference (constructed from individuals' own attitudes and their beliefs about others' attitudes towards norms) and, on the other hand, the degree of son preference in the sample population. The study therefore does not evaluate any intervention, but selectively uses randomization methods to obtain rigorous measures of these concepts, for instance through list experiments. Primarily, we aim to (i) quantify the prevalence of different types of son preference in the sample population, (ii) quantify the degree of misperception regarding norms about son preference and general gender norms at the household- and community-level, and (iii) analyze the relationship between norm perceptions and son preference.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Most randomizations in the study are done by a computer (survey CTO software or Stata). The randomization of the order of the scenarios in the game to measure son preference in different hypothetical situations is done through letting participants choose game cards. The surveyor shuffles the cards, then holds them in front of the participant (with the participant only seeing the back of the card) and asks her/him to choose a card. The surveyor repeats this procedure until all cards (scenarios) have been randomly chosen. This randomization is done by randomly drawing cards without putting them back in the pile after the scenario has already been played.
Randomization Unit
Individual-level (double-list experiment)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
300 households (interviews will be conducted with husband and wife of each household)
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 (interviews with husbands and wives)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Double list experiment: All 600 participants receive both a treatment and a control list, but it is randomized at the individual level which one is which (i.e., to which of the two lists the target statement is added). Thus, in 300 participants the first list is the treatment list and in 300 participants in the second list is the treatment list.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
N.A.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IFMR Human Subjects Committee
IRB Approval Date
2024-08-26
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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