The sensitivity of measured prevalence of street harassment to questionnaire design

Last registered on August 27, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The sensitivity of measured prevalence of street harassment to questionnaire design
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019421
Initial registration date
August 21, 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
August 27, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Lori Beaman
Affiliation
Northwestern University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Seema Jayachandran
PI Affiliation
Princeton University
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PI Name
Anisha Sharma
PI Affiliation
Ashoka University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2024-11-13
End date
2025-04-22
Keywords
Gender
Additional Keywords
sexual harassment; street harassment; women's safety; survey methodology; questionnaire design; screener questions; measurement; India; female labor force participation
JEL code(s)
83, J16, K42, O12
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Gender-based harassment in public spaces affects women directly through victimization and indirectly through fear. We survey women aged 19–40 recruited at randomly sampled public spaces (bus stops, metro stations, and markets) in New Delhi (N=2,249) and Bengaluru (N=2,290), measuring the prevalence of seven forms of harassment, the anxiety the risk of each form induces, and self-reported effects of harassment risk on work and mobility decisions. To quantify how questionnaire design affects measured prevalence, respondents were randomly assigned to either the main questionnaire (with 90% probability) which asks directly about specific experiences related to gender-based harassment or an alternative (with 10% probability) that used screener questions. The screener questionnaire asked two questions about women's experiences with either physical or non-physical sexual harassment before asking the same set of specific experiences as in the main questionnaire, conditional on a woman indicating she had been harassed.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Beaman, Lori, Seema Jayachandran and Anisha Sharma. 2026. "The sensitivity of measured prevalence of street harassment to questionnaire design." AEA RCT Registry. August 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19421-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-13
Intervention End Date
2025-04-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Reported prevalence of gender-based harassment in public spaces: any form, less severe forms (unwanted staring, catcalls, lewd gestures, flashing), and severe forms (groping, stalking, sexual assault), over the past year and ever, by questionnaire version.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Type-specific prevalence; locations of harassment; self-reported anxiety about each harassment type; self-reported influence of harassment risk on whether and where to work, social activities, and errands.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In-person survey of women aged 19–40 recruited at sampled public venues (bus stops, metro stations, retail markets) in Delhi (Nov–Dec 2024) and Bengaluru (Mar–Apr 2025). Respondents were randomized in real time (via SurveyCTO) between two questionnaire versions: a behaviorally specific version with neutral framing (90%) and a screener-question version labeling behaviors as "sexual harassment" (10%). The screener-question version replicates the instrument previously fielded to the full sample in a companion (non-randomized) survey in Jaipur (May–Jun 2024, N=1,863), whose data provide a cross-city benchmark and are reported in the paper's appendix; the Jaipur survey is not part of the randomized trial registered here.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Real-time computer randomization within the SurveyCTO survey instrument (uniform random draws generated at runtime for each respondent).
Randomization Unit
Individual respondent (questionnaire version).
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
Completed surveys: 2,101 in Delhi; 2,024 in Bengaluru (4,125 total in the trial).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Delhi: 1,900 main questionnaire, 201 screener version. Bengaluru: 1,823 main questionnaire, 201 screener version.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Princeton University
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-24
IRB Approval Number
16477
IRB Name
IFMR
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-20
IRB Approval Number
22012024
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
April 22, 2025, 12:00 AM +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
April 22, 2025, 12:00 AM +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Completed surveys: 2,101 in Delhi; 2,024 in Bengaluru (4,125 total in the trial).
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials