Effect of listening to reggaeton songs on inter- and intra-gender social preferences in the ultimatum game

This project investigates the impact of reggaeton on the prosocial behaviour of men towards women, utilizing the "ultimatum" economic game. Reggaetón, popular in Latin America and especially listened to by the youth, often contains sexually explicit lyrics that can objectify and degrade women.

The study involves 360 university students (180 men, 180 women) aged 18 to 24, distributed across three conditions: listening to misogynistic reggaetón with and without visible lyrics and a control group listening to a neutral music genre. Each condition consists of four groups of 15 pairs (30 subjects) participating in the "ultimatum" game, where one proposer divides CAD 11 (approximately 28,000 Colombian pesos) between themselves and another player. In the role of proposers, men are expected to favour themselves more when the responders are women. This experiment addresses the influence of music on prosocial attitudes towards women, providing insights into how exposure to misogynistic content can affect economic and gender behaviour.

2024-11-01

2024-12-20

Transfers from player 1 to player 2 in an ultimatum game and player 2's rejection rates for the whole sample and by gender.

We are interested in identifying the effect of listening to misogynistic songs on gender violence. We hypothesize that, after listening to misogynistic songs, men's misogynous feelings or motivations will increase. This result will be captured by transfers from male to female participants when the former plays as player 1 in the ultimatum game. We anticipate males transferring less money to females than other males. Similarly, when males play the role of player 2 in the game with females playing as player 1, their rejection rates are higher than when playing with males as player 1. Additionally, female participants can feel rejection towards males, which can be transmitted through their offers and rejection rates in the game. Furthermore, we do not expect to see differences in behaviour across treatments when players play with players of the same gender.

Rating of misogynistic songs by males and females and the difference between how participants rate the songs and how they believe their peers would rate the songs.

We want to determine two outcomes: 1) whether and how differences between participants' own assessment and how they think their peers would evaluate the songs for the whole sample and by gender; and 2) whether there are differences in assessments between participants.

The study will be based on three conditions (two experimental: misogynistic music - only listened to - and with the song lyrics displayed on the screen; and the control group). Each condition will have four groups of 15 pairs, each participating in an economic ultimatum game. Two women will act as proposers, one with a man and the other with a woman. Similarly, two men will play the same role, one with a woman and the other with another man. Thus, each group will have two male proposers and two male responders, and two female proposers and two female responders. Roles will be assigned randomly.

Eight reggaeton songs with explicitly misogynistic lyrics will be selected. These songs will be voted on by sixty incentivized students at the same university and age, who will rate them on a scale from 1 to 8, where 1 is “not misogynistic at all” and 8 is “definitely misogynistic.” Based on these ratings, the two songs with the highest scores will be selected and pre-listened to by the participants in the proposer role before starting the ultimatum game. Four groups will only listen to the songs, while the other four will listen and read the lyrics displayed on a screen. Additionally, a scale will be used to identify how often participants listen to this type of music, ranging from 1 “never” to “every day.” It is noteworthy that the participants involved in validating the songs will receive a movie voucher worth 28,000 Colombian pesos (10 CAD).

Upon welcoming the participants, they will be informed that this study consists of two parts. The first part aims to evaluate musical preferences, and the second part examines economic behavior through a game called “ultimatum.” Subsequently, the participants will listen to a song and indicate how much they liked it, which genre it belonged to, and how frequently they listen to this type of music. Next, participants will move on to the second part of the study. Those randomly assigned the role of "proposers" will be told that the task involves dividing 28,000 Colombian pesos between themselves and another person chosen at random, whom they do not know. They will be asked to make a proposal on how to divide the money, which will be the offer they make to the other person with the "responder" role, who will decide whether to accept or reject it. If the "responder" accepts the offer, the money will be distributed as suggested by the "proposer." However, if the "responder" rejects the offer, neither will receive any money. Participants assigned the role of "responders" will also be informed that their role was chosen randomly and that this game involves dividing 28,000 Colombian pesos between themselves and another player with the "proposer" role, whom they do not know. They will be told that the "proposer" will make a proposal for dividing the money, meaning the "proposer" will decide how much to allocate to the responder and keep for themselves. However, the "responders" will decide whether to accept or reject the offer, so the final payment will depend on their decision. If they accept the offer, the money will be distributed as proposed by the "proposer," and if they reject it, neither will receive any money. At the end, participants will receive a debriefing explaining the study's objective, ensuring they understand the nature of the study and why information about the project title and objective was omitted in the informed consent.

Randomization will be conducted by the software used in the experimental lab at the Konrad Lorenz University Foundation.

Individual participants.

No

We do not plan to have clusters.

Participants in the experiment will play the dictator game for ten rounds. Since we will have 360 participants, the total number of observations for the amount transferred and acceptance/rejection responses is 3,600.

360 participants are divided into pairs and assigned to one of three treatments: 1) control with the sound of neutral music, 2) treatment 1 with the sound of reggaeton songs, and 3) treatment 3 with the sound and lyrics on the screen of reggaeton songs. Each group will have 120 participants and 60 pairs in the ultimatum game.

We can detect large-size effects with an alpha of 0.05 and a power of 0.80 based on our sample size.