Misperceptions and intergroup cooperation

Last registered on June 15, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Misperceptions and intergroup cooperation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018155
Initial registration date
June 05, 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
June 15, 2026, 1:37 PM EDT

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
Pierce Gately
Affiliation
University of Nottingham
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ángela Jiang-Wang
PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-06-09
End date
2027-09-30
Keywords
Behavior, Lab, Other
Additional Keywords
misperceptions, social norms, polarization, cooperation
JEL code(s)
C92, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
How groups perceive each other can impede or facilitate intergroup cooperation, which is necessary to solve large scale collective action problems. If groups harbour negative feelings towards each other, it can foster an 'us' vs 'them' mentality which undermines societal progress by curtailing cooperation beyond group lines. A canonical finding in experimental literature is that most people are conditional cooperators, willing to cooperate if they believe others will do likewise. For such individuals’ beliefs about the cooperativeness of others are central to determining their own behaviour. In intergroup contexts perceived polarisation between groups can be self-reinforcing if individuals expect intergroup prejudicial attitudes to translate into discriminatory actions. We propose a series of studies to unpack the behavioural channels through which perceptions of polarisation between groups impact intergroup cooperation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gately, Pierce and Ángela Jiang-Wang. 2026. "Misperceptions and intergroup cooperation." AEA RCT Registry. June 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18155-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2026-06-09
Intervention End Date
2027-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We have three kinds of primary outcomes in our study:
1. Differences in cooperation toward in-group and out-group members (out-group discrimination)
2. Cooperation between in-group and out-group members (intergroup cooperation)
3. (Mis)perceptions across three domains (affective, normative, and attitudinal) and two reference networks (in-group and out-group)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1. Cooperation will be defined as the number of tokens contributed to each group account in a modified version of the simultaneous Public Goods Game design in Falk et al. (2013), hereafter S-PGG, where every participant must independently decide whether to contribute to a group account with an in-group member and a group account with an out-group member.

2. Misperceptions will be measured at the individual level by examining the difference between participants' expectations about others' responses and the true responses. See more details in the attached materials.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Differences in attitudes and beliefs toward in-group and out-group members
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Beliefs and attitudes will be measured following the A(BC) approach of Gachter et al. (2017) applied to the S-PGG

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We are planning to conduct two studies:

Study 1. We will elicit participants' feelings toward President Donald Trump in order to classify them as Trump Lovers or Trump Haters following a method similar to that of Dimant (2024). Study 1 is composed of three treatments. In all treatments, in-group and out-group membership will be defined using the Trump Hate/Love paradigm. That is, all participants will play with a Trump Lover in one group and a Trump Hater in the other group in the S-PGG.

Anonymous treatment: No information will be given to participants regarding the identity of their partner in each group in the S-PGG.

Trump treatment: We will reveal to participants whether they will play with a Trump Lover or a Trump Hater in each group in the S-PGG. All participants will be randomly matched with a Trump Lover in one group and a Trump Hater in the other group.

Charity treatment: Same as Trump treatment; however, a fixed portion of the earnings generated from the group accounts will go toward a charity (Feeding America).

Study 2. If we detect misperceptions in Study 1, we will aim to correct them through information provision treatments in a follow-up study. We will have a control group where no information is provided, and information provision treatments where we will reveal the true personal norms, attitudes, and/or feelings thermometer ratings elicited in Study 1. We will aim to correct misperceptions in one domain per treatment. The final number of treatments will depend on whether we detect misperceptions in Study 1. Participants will then play another S-PGG mirroring the design of the Trump treatment in Study 1.

More details about the experimental design are disclosed in the attached materials.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done using the "randomizer" tool in Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Randomization will be conducted at the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
As each subject makes multiple decisions, we will cluster at the level of the individual.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to invite a minimum of 2160 participants to take part in Study 1. Participants who take part in the Trump treatment will also be invited to take part in Study 2 (which will be launched approximately one week after Study 1).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We will randomize participants into treatments on Qualtrics. We aim to recruit approximately 72-74% of participants into our Trump treatment, and 13-14% of participants to each of our anonymous and charity treatments in Study 1. In Study 2 participants will be randomized across control and treatment arms in equal numbers (the exact number of treatment arms depends on the misperceptions we find in Study 1).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For our anonymous and charity treatments in Study 1, considering outgroup discrimination (the difference allocated to both group accounts) we detect an effect size of 0.17 (Cohen's d, alpha=.05, 1-beta=0.8) with a sample size of 280 (~13% of 2160), in our Trump treatment we detect an effect size of 0.07 (Cohen's d, alpha=.05, 1-beta=0.8) with a sample size of 1600 (~74% of 2160). For Study 2 the number of treatment arms depends on the misperceptions we find in Study 1. We calculate effect sizes for our primary outcome of interest (a reduction in the level of outgroup discrimination). n_per_arm alpha 1-beta mdes 100 0.05 0.8 1.176 200 0.05 0.8 0.832 300 0.05 0.8 0.679 400 0.05 0.8 0.588 500 0.05 0.8 0.526 600 0.05 0.8 0.48 700 0.05 0.8 0.445 800 0.05 0.8 0.416 900 0.05 0.8 0.392
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The Nottingham School of Economics Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2025-12-11
IRB Approval Number
ERCP-2025-057Gately
Analysis Plan

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