Self-interest, racist inclinations and inequality acceptance among welfare chauvinists in the UK

Last registered on June 15, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Self-interest, racist inclinations and inequality acceptance among welfare chauvinists in the UK
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014897
Initial registration date
January 04, 2025

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 10, 2025, 1:08 PM EST

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

Last updated
June 15, 2026, 5:42 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Linda Dezső
Affiliation
Danbue University Krems, Department of Economics and Health
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Valeriia Chukaeva
PI Affiliation
Department of Economics, University of Graz
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-04-01
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Welfare
Additional Keywords
spectator task, inequality acceptance, welfare chauvinism, racism, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, redistribution, welfare attitudes, means-tested benefits
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project investigates how individual preferences and attitudes shape welfare chauvinistic attitudes among UK voters.
The study measures participants' welfare dependency, inequality acceptance, racist inclinations, and a wide range of demographic characteristics.
We test whether (1) increased welfare dependency, (2) racist inclinations, (3) and higher inequality acceptance are positively associated with welfare chauvinism.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dezső, Linda and Valeriia Chukaeva. 2026. "Self-interest, racist inclinations and inequality acceptance among welfare chauvinists in the UK." AEA RCT Registry. June 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14897-1.8
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-04-10
Intervention End Date
2025-09-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Welfare chauvinistic attitudes - this will be modeled as an ordered variable and also as a definite (binary: yes/no welfare chauvinism). Moreover, when examining what drives wc attitudes, we will use the four--level categorization: no wc, economic in-group wc, cultural ingroup wc, unconditional wc.

We measure welfare chauvisnism with the following very specific measure:
In your view, at which point do immigrants of any origin deserve access to Universal Credit which is comparable with that received by natives or UK-born citizens of the UK?

"Immediately after they arrive",
"As soon as they start paying taxes",
"After they have worked and paid taxes for at least a year",
"Once they have the settled status",
"Once they became UK citizens",
"Never",
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment is a 2 (Choice: Merit/Luck) * 2 (Heterogeneity_order factor.), but these latter is only to control for order effects..

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Participants are randomized into one of the four cells by the computer program (oTree).
Randomization Unit
individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We do not have clusters in this study.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We have no clusters in this study.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We aim to collect minimum N= 1000 UK voters, 250 in each cell.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
First preregistration
Document Type
other
Document Description
This preregistration was originally submitted prior to conducting the first study that included the within-subject spectator task. A key element of this preregistration was the acknowledgment of a potential order effect in the within-subject spectator task. The manuscript titled “Carry-over effects in the within-subject spectator task bias measured inequality acceptance and estimated fairness-preference types” is dedicated to analyzing and investigating this uncovered order effect.
At the same time, as documented in the updated preregistration document, we redesigned the study on welfare chauvinism by implementing a between-subjects version of the spectator task and subsequently collected new data. Based on the revised study and new data, we have written up the manuscript entitled "Perceived welfare exploitation and anti-foreigner attitudes co-vary most strongly with welfare chauvinism toward Universal Credit in the UK."
File
First preregistration

MD5: be25ca2463796088db1e73e9433d51e1

SHA1: 32ed0d77d457418cf287852a1b14de7c5780c6dd

Uploaded At: June 15, 2026

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethical Commission of the Danube University Krems
IRB Approval Date
2024-05-13
IRB Approval Number
EK GZ 101/2021-2024
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information