Walking with the Enslaved: The Effects of Memorializing Racial Injustice in the Contemporary United States

Guided walking tour of a trail about slavery or virtual walking tour of the same area.

2027-04-01

2027-06-01

For both the in-person field experiment and companion survey experiment:
1) Support for racial justice policies and practices
2) Support for transitional justice policies and practices

Support for racial justice policies and practices will include a scale of Likert responses to the following survey questions across both the field experiment and companion survey experiment:
- Which of the following institutions have a responsibility to address past human rights abuses?
- To what extent do you support financial reparations for African Americans harmed by past wrongs?
- Given the historical context of inequality, how fair do you believe it is for African Americans to receive reparations?
- To what extent do you believe society has a responsibility to compensate African Americans for the disadvantages caused by previous policies?
- Do you believe there is a moral obligation to provide reparations to African Americans due to housing discrimination?
- To what extent do you support preferential hiring of Black candidates for jobs?
- In the wake of increased momentum of Black Lives Matter Movement, there has been increased discussion about police reform. To what extent do you support reforming the police?
- Would you support or oppose the federal government creating a commission to study providing reparations to African Americans to make up for the lasting impact of slavery and discrimination?
- To what extent would you support a local government initiative to provide downpayment assistance and mortgage payment assistance to the descendants of those who suffered from housing discrimination?

Support for transitional justice policies and practices will include a scale of Likert responses to the following survey questions across both the field experiment and companion survey experiment:
- To what extent do you support establishing a national truth commission in the United States about the nation's history of slavery
- Why? (open ended)
- To what extent do you support establishing a local truth commission in Richmond, VA about the city's history of slavery
- Why? (open ended)
- To what extent do you support establishing memorials to the following:
a) Jim Crow
b) Mass incarceration
c) Racist policing practices
d) Discriminatory education policies
e) Discriminatory housing policies
f) Violent immigration enforcement
- Do you believe the the United States Government should formally apologize for chattel slavery?
- Do you believe the Virginia Government should formally apologize for chattel slavery?

For the in-person experiment, there will be four additional follow-up surveys after the initial intervention:
1) Writing to Richmond city council in support of the Shockoe Project (one week following intervention)
2) Writing to local school board in support of slavery memorialization curriculum (one month following intervention)
3) Intention to vote in Virginia Senate, House of Delegates, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sheriff, Commissioner of Revenue, Treasurer, Local School board (three months following intervention)
4) Self-reported voting behavior (six months following intervention)

The secondary outcomes are exclusively for participants enrolled in the field experiment. These will consist of survey questions asking about willingness to do the activity associated with the follow up (write to city council, vote, etc.) along with clickable links to contact forms for the relevant local governing authority.

Between subjects design, field experiment and companion survey experiment.

Not available

The field experiment treatment assignment will be accomplished through digital coin flip. The survey experiment treatment assignment will be accomplished through a randomization function in Qualtrics.

The field experimental treatment assignment will be clustered at the session level. Participants will arrive for the session, take a pre-test survey, and be randomized to either attend the walking tour or a tour of the train museum. The survey experimental randomization will occur at the individual level.

Yes

14 tour groups

Field experiment: 400 Survey experiment: 1000

Field experiment: 200 individuals in treatment (7 tour groups), 200 individuals in control (7 tour groups)
Survey experiment: 500 in treatment, 500 in control

Based on earlier research (Balcells et al 2022; Balcells and Voytas 2024) we aim to detect a minimum effect of increasing critical historical knowledge & support for reparations of .14. The power calculations consider 180 individuals in the treatment group and 180 individuals in the control group with a treatment allocation of .5 and a total sample size of 360, and is calculated at the survey immediately following the treatment.