Universalism in Redistribution Preferences

Last registered on December 09, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Universalism in Redistribution Preferences
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017391
Initial registration date
December 03, 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 09, 2025, 7:31 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
Henrike Sternberg
Affiliation
Technical University of Munich
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-11-25
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Inequality; Redistribution; Group identity; Survey Experiment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study examines to what extent the concept of moral universalism extends to inequality aversion or acceptance, and thus, the preference to redistribute. I use experimental survey data from Germany to examine universalism in redistribution preferences in terms of its prevalence, its robustness towards the degree and source of inequality, and relevant individual-level correlates.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sternberg, Henrike. 2025. "Universalism in Redistribution Preferences." AEA RCT Registry. December 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17391-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-25
Intervention End Date
2025-12-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Individuals' decisions in a series of spectator games where the group identities of the recipients vary
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Respondents participate in a series of third-party spectator games. Acting as spectators, they will be presented with differential initial distributions of money between two hypothetical people. They then have to decide whether and to what degree they would like to reallocate these initial amounts.

In each decision scenario, one of the hypothetical people is an in-group member of some kind, while the other one is an out-group member. The group identity defining in- and out-group varies, such that each participant is presented with five different group identities. For each respondent, the initial inequality is in favor of an in-group member in half of the scenarios while, in the other half, the initial inequality is in favor of the out-group member. Thus, in total, each respondent is presented with ten decision scenarios (five different group identities, once with the initial inequality favoring the in-group and once favoring the out-group), which are presented in randomized order.

I randomly vary (between subjects) (i) the group identities (two different lists), (ii) the degree of initial inequality (low, medium, high), and (iii) the source of the differential amounts of money (winnings in a lottery vs. performance in a quiz). Each of the two lists of group identities is constructed in line with the different domains of universalism in altruism and trust following Enke et al. (2022).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is programmed and performed through the Qualtrics Survey Flow.
Randomization Unit
Individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
approx. 4000 respondents
Sample size: planned number of observations
approx. 3200 (since a random 20% of the sample instead plays disinterested dictator games to measure universalism in Altruism)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
approx. 1600 respondents per list of group identities (2 different lists of group identities)
approx. 1067 respondents per degree of initial inequality (low, medium, high)
approx. 1600 respondents per source of inequality (lottery/quiz)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
German Association for Experimental Economic Research (GfeW review procedure))
IRB Approval Date
2025-11-24
IRB Approval Number
8jGErVAL
Analysis Plan

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