Signaling Commitment to Peace and Discrimination Against Ex-combatants

Last registered on November 17, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Signaling Commitment to Peace and Discrimination Against Ex-combatants

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0017197

Initial registration date

November 06, 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 17, 2025, 2:18 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Colombia

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Camilo Gomez

Affiliation

CERGE-EI

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2025-11-06

End date

2026-01-31

Keywords

Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Post-conflict

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This project aims to identify whether individuals discriminate against ex-combatants, supporters of peaceful conflict resolution, and supporters of military conflict resolution in post-conflict societies. In addition, this study will causally identify whether signaling ex-combatants’ commitment to reintegration when appearing before transitional justice reduces the discrimination against them. The study will conduct an online experiment using the Help-or-Harm Task to measure social behavior toward various profiles, including citizens and former combatants.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Gomez, Camilo. 2025. "Signaling Commitment to Peace and Discrimination Against Ex-combatants ." AEA RCT Registry. November 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17197-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention (Hidden)

The intervention manipulates the information contained in a profile that participants evaluate. Each profile is a distinct informational treatment. There are six profiles (three “citizen” profiles and three “ex-combatant” profiles). The baseline (control) profiles are “Baseline Citizen” and “Baseline Ex-combatant”. The experimental profiles vary a single attribute relative to their baseline (citizen: support for peace vs support for military intervention; ex-combatant: appeared before transitional justice vs did not appear). All participants see all six profiles (within-subject design), so treatment effects are estimated by comparing responses to different profiles within the same participant.

The experimental manipulations of the information about experimental counterparts will allow me to estimate whether people discriminate against ex-combatants, whether discrimination diminishes when the ex-combatants appear before transitional justice and whether people condition social behavior based on views of other people about conflict resolution.

The experimental conditions are:
Block 1: Citizens
Control Condition: Baseline Citizen
Experimental Conditions: Citizen who supports peaceful negotiations as a conflict resolution strategy and Citizen who supports military intervention as a conflict resolution strategy

Block 2: Ex-combatants
Control Condition: Baseline Ex-combatant
Experimental Conditions: Ex-combatant who appeared before the transitional justice and Ex-combatant who did not appear before the transitional justice

Intervention Start Date

2025-11-06

Intervention End Date

2026-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Social behavior toward the individual described in the profile: This is a numerical variable in the [0, 50,000] COP range. This corresponds to the decision made by the participant in the Help-or-Harm Task.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

In the Help-or-Harm Task, participants decide how much money each profile will receive. The default allocation is COP 25,000. Participants can adjust this amount within the [0, 50,000] range at no pecuniary cost or benefit to themselves.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Belief about ex-combatants. There will be a question about the belief of how an ex-combatant would decide when determining the reward for a citizen in the Help-or-Harm Task.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Randomization is applied to the presentation order only as the design is within-subject.

Experimental Design Details

Each participant evaluates six profiles grouped in two blocks (citizens and ex-combatants). The order of the two blocks is randomized between participants. Within each block, the first profile is fixed (the block baseline) and the remaining two profiles are presented in random order.

Randomization Method

The survey software will randomize the order of blocks and profiles at the individual level.

Randomization Unit

Unit of randomization is individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No cluster sampling

Sample size: planned number of observations

4,500 participants

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

- Baseline Citizen: 4,500
- Citizen who supports peaceful negotiations as a conflict resolution strategy: 4,500
- Citizen who supports military intervention as a conflict resolution strategy: 4,500
- Baseline Ex-combatant: 4,500
- Ex-combatant who appeared before the transitional justice: 4,500
- Ex-combatant who did not appear before the transitional justice: 4,500

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB