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Making inequality unacceptable: an experiment on fiction reading and prosociality

Last registered on May 21, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Making inequality unacceptable: an experiment on fiction reading and prosociality
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015996
Initial registration date
May 15, 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
May 21, 2025, 3:26 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
Juan Ferro
Affiliation
Universidad de los Andes
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jose-Alberto Guerra
PI Affiliation
Universidad de los Andes
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-04-24
End date
2026-06-01
Keywords
Behavior, Education
Additional Keywords
Fiction reading, prosociality
JEL code(s)
C93, D63, D64
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
A necessary condition for reducing inequality is the social condemnation of it. In fact, policies that aim to reduce inequality can only be effectively implemented if it is considered unacceptable by citizens. Thus, the central question of this research project is: Does fiction reading causally increase prosociality?

The hypothesis we work with is that art, in general, and fiction reading in particular, can be one of the tools that helps us change social norms to make inequality less socially acceptable. We randomize participants into two courses: a fiction reading course and an economic for beginners course with the same intensity. Both courses last for 4 (pilot) to 6 (experiment) weeks. After the courses we use economic games to elicit participants preferences and measure the causal impact of fiction reading on behavior towards inequality.

Our final goal is also to develop a relevant fiction reading curriculum that facilitates the replication of our findings on a larger scale.


External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ferro, Juan and Jose-Alberto Guerra. 2025. "Making inequality unacceptable: an experiment on fiction reading and prosociality." AEA RCT Registry. May 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15996-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
PAREDRO
Type
private_company
URL
https://paredro-leo.com/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The public for the pilot is only college students at Universidad de los Andes.

The public for the general intervention are students on their last two years of high-school, early college students at large and members of the general public who frequently visit the public libraries in Bogotá.

Intervention Start Date
2025-04-24
Intervention End Date
2026-06-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We want to measure all dimensions of prosociality through economic games.
We will use the following canonical games:
- Dictator game
- Ultimatum game
- Trust game
- Third party game
Instruction for participants on each of these games is provided at the Materials sections.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We understand prosociality as the share of the personal income that an individual is willing to share with others. This share is different depending on each situation, and that is why we use different economic games. In any cae, this is a more objective measure than the ones we find in the existing literature.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Additionally, we will measure empirical and normative expectations regarding the behavior in those games.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
There are two experimental sessions in which economic games are played.

The first one occurs on the day of the last session of each course. This is our measure of short term effects.

The second one is performed 1 to 3 months after the corurse end. This is our measure of long term effects.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in the computter. Each participant is randomly allocated to treatment or control.
Randomization Unit
For the pilot we randomize at the individual level.
For the formal experiment we will randomize at the school or public library level in order to prevent contamination.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
For the pilot we have 60 enrolled students (30 in each course).
Sample size: planned number of observations
For the pilot we have 60 enrolled students (30 in each course).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 students in control and treatment arm for the first instance of the pilot. We aim at having at least two additional rounds in 2025-II and 2026-I with at least 50 students in each experimental condition. That is, we will have at least 130 in control and 130 in treatment in the pilot
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We will use the dictator game for this calculation. Assuming that on average people send 25 with std dev 14, and we want to detect a change of 7 in the fiction reading group) with an type I-error of 5% and a 1-typeII error of 80, we need a sample of at least 63 in each treatment condition: that is, 126 in total.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
COMITÉ DE ÉTICA DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN de la Facultad de Economía de la Universidad de Los Andes
IRB Approval Date
2025-04-04
IRB Approval Number
039
Analysis Plan