Poralization by Moralization: Pilots

Last registered on March 23, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Poralization by Moralization: Pilots
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018153
Initial registration date
March 17, 2026

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
March 23, 2026, 7:25 AM EDT

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Christian Höhne
Affiliation
University of Cambridge
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-03-17
End date
2027-05-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project registers a series of pilot studies conducted in preparation for a main experiment investigating whether the moralization of policy discourse increases affective polarization. Exploratory pilots assess whether a selected policy stimulus and the framing intervention meet the design requirements for causal identification. The intervention pilots test the full experimental design end-to-end to assess whether the intervention produces a detectable effect on the outcome of interest (affective polarization) and increase the precision for power calculations of the final experiment. All findings are used exclusively to refine the materials and design of the main experiment, which will be separately pre-registered prior to data collection.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Höhne, Christian. 2026. "Poralization by Moralization: Pilots." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18153-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2026-06-15
Intervention End Date
2026-08-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
policy support
affective polarization
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
affective polarization is constructed as the difference in money sent in two independent dictator games. In one game, participants will send money to another participant who expressed the same policy preference as them and in the other game, participants will send money to a participant who expressed the opposite policy preference.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants are recruited online from the German adult population. The experiment proceeds in four steps.

First, participants read information about a policy and are asked about their assessment of the policy.

Second, participants are randomly assigned to one of two framing conditions in a between-subject design. In the moral framing condition,
the policy decision is presented as an expression of moral character and values. In the alternative framing condition, the same decision is presented as a question of costs and benefits.

Third, participants are informed of the policy positions of two other participants: one who made the same decision and one who made the
opposite decision. Participants then play two incentivized dictator games, allocating money between themselves and each of the two other
participants. Affective polarization is measured as the within-subject difference in transfers to the participant who agreed versus the participant who disagreed.

The primary estimand is the difference in affective polarization between the moral framing condition and the economic framing condition.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment conditions using the survey built-in randomization function, which assigns participants to conditions with equal probability upon survey entry.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Each participant is assigned to exactly one framing condition independently of all other participants.
Sample size: planned number of observations
I plan for 100 individual participants for the first exploratory pilot
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treatments will be balanced equally by treatment arm.
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 e.V.
IRB Approval Date
2026-03-13
IRB Approval Number
Icjd3noF
Analysis Plan