Beliefs About Income Inequality and Policy

Last registered on July 13, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Beliefs About Income Inequality and Policy
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019128
Initial registration date
July 11, 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
July 13, 2026, 8:32 AM 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
Danlei Huang
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-07-10
End date
2027-07-11
Keywords
Behavior, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
income inequality, income distribution, redistribution, beliefs, perceptions, minimum wage, survey experiment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study examines whether informational primes can shift people’s mindsets about the causes of income inequality and whether such changes affect inequality beliefs. Respondents are randomly assigned to one of three groups: a no-information control group, a group receiving information emphasizing individual-level explanations for income inequality, and a group receiving information emphasizing structural explanations for income inequality. The study then compares post-treatment mindsets, beliefs, and policy preferences across groups.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Huang, Danlei. 2026. "Beliefs About Income Inequality and Policy." AEA RCT Registry. July 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19128-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention consists of three survey conditions. Respondents in the Individualist-prime arm receive information emphasizing effort, skills and choices as explanations for income inequality. Respondents in the Structuralist-prime arm receive information emphasizing family, social environment, and place they are born into as explanations for income inequality. Respondents in the control arm receive no information before answering the post-treatment questions.
Intervention Start Date
2026-07-11
Intervention End Date
2027-07-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Respondents’ policy preferences, perceptions of income inequality, ideal income distributions, and mindsets about the causes of income differences.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is an online randomized survey experiment with U.S. adult respondents. Respondents are randomly assigned at the individual level to one of three conditions: a No-information control arm, an Individualist-prime arm, or a Structuralist-prime arm. The study examines whether these conditions affect respondents' mindsets, and then whether it affect perceptions of income inequality and related economic beliefs.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Respondents are randomly assigned at the individual level to one of the survey conditions using the survey platform’s built-in randomization procedure.
Randomization Unit
Individual respondent.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2,100 individual respondents.
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,100 respondents.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
700 respondents in the No-information control arm, 700 respondents in the Structuralist-prime arm, and 700 respondents in the Individualist-prime 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
Sub-Panel on Social Science & Humanities Research Ethics (Human Participants), Panel on Research Ethics, Research Committee, University of Macau
IRB Approval Date
2026-03-23
IRB Approval Number
HE-1519-2026
Analysis Plan