Motivated essentialism: Group ego in talent attribution

Last registered on November 26, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Motivated essentialism: Group ego in talent attribution
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016802
Initial registration date
November 24, 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
November 26, 2025, 7:09 AM EST

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

Locations

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

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Felix Bonnes-Valkyser
Affiliation
Universität Hamburg
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lydia Mechtenberg
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Galina Zudenkova
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-11-25
End date
2026-11-25
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
group ego, essentialism, talent attribution, motivated beliefs, model uncertainty, experiment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We conduct an online experiment to analyze how individuals adopt worldviews on the relation between talent and salient group identities under model uncertainty. Both, talent and group identities are implemented experimentally and hence fully controlled. Our subjects observe group identities as well as individual results in a talent-related task. We investigate whether they adopt a non-essentialist worldview according to which talent is an individual characteristic rather than a group characteristic or an essentialist worldview of group talent according to which talent is a group characteristic rather than an individual one. Therefore, our experiment is designed such that the maximum-likelihood winner among worldviews is the non-essentialist belief that talent is an individual characteristic and not a group characteristic. We investigate two potential driving forces to explain why there are also individuals deviating to the essentialist worldview that considers talent as a group characteristic: group-ego utility and individual-ego utility. Both imply essentialist beliefs on talent to be more prevalent among individuals from groups in which more members solved the talent-related task successfully, compared to other groups. Furthermore, individual-ego utility implies that individuals who belong to such groups but have themselves not solved the talent-related task successfully exhibit particularly strong essentialist beliefs on talent. To separate group ego from individual ego, we reduce the salience of the group identity in a control treatment (no-color treatment). If group ego motivates essentialist beliefs about talent, then these beliefs should become less prevalent when group identities are no longer salient. This is because group-ego utility depends on group identity. In addition, we conduct spectator treatments to isolate unmotivated essentialism. Findings of our study will contribute to understanding the emergence and persistence of essentialist worldviews about group talents as well as group segregation in education, politics or the labor market.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bonnes-Valkyser, Felix, Lydia Mechtenberg and Galina Zudenkova. 2025. "Motivated essentialism: Group ego in talent attribution." AEA RCT Registry. November 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16802-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-25
Intervention End Date
2026-11-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Adopted worldview: "Group talent" (represented by 'urns assignment conditional on color' in the experiment) or "individual talent" (represented by 'urns assignment independent of color' in the experiment).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We introduce two different options how urns assignment could be implemented in the study: either urns assignment is conditional on colors or it is independent of colors. Then, after participants observe everyone drawing one ball from their urns, we ask them which of the two options (corresponding to worldviews) they believe has been implemented. The answer is discrete in this main task, such that we obtain a binary dependent variable 'believing in group talent' which is 1 in case a participant selects 'conditional urns assignment', and 0 otherwise (i.e., if the only other option 'independent urns assignment' is selected).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
- Belief confidence
- Beliefs about participants with 'good' urns (see the experimental design section)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We ask participants how confident they are with their answer on their adopted worldview. They place their answer on a slider from 'very unconfident' to 'very confident'.

In addition, we ask which three participants among the population of six they believe are most likely to have a good urn (see the experimental design section). In response, participants select three of the six participants in their population, given their answer is consistent with the discrete belief reported before.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In our experiment, we investigate whether group ego motivates individuals belonging to a specific group to believe that their group characteristic is linked to talent, while the group characteristic of another group is not. The group characteristics are implemented as colors yellow or blue in the color treatment, which is the treatment where the group characteristics are most salient. In the color-free treatment, these colors and hence group characteristics are removed. Being talented refers to having been assigned a 'good urn', i.e., an urn with more red balls. Vice versa, being untalented refers to having a 'bad urn', i.e., an urn with fewer red balls. There are two potential methods of urns assignment, one based on the group characteristic and the other independent of it, and only one is implemented. Which one is implemented is not observable. The two groups of subjects are shown a realization of draws from their respective individual urns. We elicit participants' beliefs on which method of urns assignment has been implemented.
In addition, we conduct two spectator treatments, one related to the color treatment and one related to the color-free treatment. Beliefs on urn assignment are incentivized. They form our main dependent variable.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by a computer, and through oTree.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
6720 participants (no planned clusters)
Sample size: planned number of observations
6720 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
ca. 2520 each for treatments 1 and 2 (players)
ca. 840 each for treatments 3 and 4 (spectators)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics comittee of the WISO faculty, University of Hamburg
IRB Approval Date
2025-11-13
IRB Approval Number
2025-048
Analysis Plan

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

Request Information