Experiencing Unequal Opportunities

Last registered on December 01, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Experiencing Unequal Opportunities
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017214
Initial registration date
November 27, 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
December 01, 2025, 11:29 AM EST

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
Andrea Pogliano
Affiliation
Erasmus University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Martin Brun
PI Affiliation
Tampere University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-11-27
End date
2027-01-31
Keywords
Behavior, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
C90 C91 D63 D90 H23
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study investigates how experiencing unequal opportunities firsthand influences redistributive preferences and beliefs about fairness. Participants are randomly assigned to perform either an easy or a hard version of an effort task that appears identical across conditions but subtly differs in difficulty, mimicking hidden structural barriers. After this experience, all participants act as impartial spectators and decide how to redistribute income between two agents who faced unequal opportunities in the same task. By comparing redistribution choices and belief updating across those who experienced advantage (easy task) and disadvantage (hard task), we test whether direct exposure to inequality increases fairness-driven redistribution, shifts attributions from effort to circumstance, and enhances empathy toward disadvantaged individuals. Our design isolates the experiential channel—separate from self-interest or outcome bias—and provides novel evidence on how lived experience of unequal opportunities shapes moral reasoning and support for redistribution.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Brun, Martin and Andrea Pogliano. 2025. "Experiencing Unequal Opportunities." AEA RCT Registry. December 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17214-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Participants are randomly assigned to one of two conditions that differ only in the difficulty of an effort task. In both conditions, the task appears identical but differs subtly in cognitive difficulty, thereby simulating hidden structural barriers.

-Treatment group (HARD version): Participants complete a more demanding version of the counting task, in which identifying the target character is made harder through visual decoys and less favorable character size.

-Control group (EASY version): Participants complete an easier version of the same counting task, where the target character is easier to detect.

The key intervention is the firsthand experience of unequal opportunities. Both groups later make redistribution decisions as impartial spectators between two agents—one who performed the easy task and one who performed the hard task. Because all participants make the same decisions after experiencing either advantage or disadvantage, differences in redistribution behavior and fairness beliefs can be causally attributed to the experiential manipulation of opportunity inequality.
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-27
Intervention End Date
2025-12-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Redistribution under unequal opportunities (costless)
SPECTATORAB_SHAREB (0–6): amount (USD) allocated to the disadvantaged agent (Agent B = HARD task) in the first, probabilistically consequential decision (1-in-10 implemented). Higher values = more fairness-driven redistribution toward the disadvantaged.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Beliefs both at the individuals and group level


Costly redistribution under unequal opportunities
SPECTATORABCOSTLY_SHAREB (0–6): same allocation as for the main outcome, but changing the initial split costs the spectator $0.20.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants are randomly assigned to perform either an easy or a hard version of a short counting task that appears identical across conditions but subtly differs in difficulty, mimicking hidden structural barriers. This manipulation creates two experiential conditions: one of advantage and one of disadvantage.

After completing the task, all participants act as impartial spectators in redistribution decisions between two agents—one who faced the easy version and one who faced the hard version. These decisions are partly incentivized and probabilistically consequential.

The experiment measures how prior experience with advantage or disadvantage affects (i) redistributive choices toward disadvantaged agents, (ii) beliefs about the role of effort versus circumstance, and (iii) emotions and empathy. The design thus isolates how the experience of unequal opportunities, independent of self-interest, shapes fairness judgments and support for redistribution.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomized through Otree
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
650 Spectators, Approximately 160 Agents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
325
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Erasmus School of Economics IRB-E
IRB Approval Date
2025-02-24
IRB Approval Number
ETH2425-0577
Analysis Plan

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