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Legitimacy And Social Desirability: MTurk Online Survey

Last registered on March 02, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Legitimacy And Social Desirability: MTurk Online Survey
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002028
Initial registration date
February 24, 2017

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
February 24, 2017, 4:11 PM EST

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

Last updated
March 02, 2017, 6:47 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. Adding Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington because there are not enough respondents from initial states.

Primary Investigator

Name
Stefano Fiorin
Affiliation
Bocconi University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Leonardo Bursztyn
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2017-02-21
End date
2017-03-21
Keywords
Electoral
Additional Keywords
Social Desirability, Legitimacy, Elections
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We will recruit survey participants on MTurk to conduct an online survey. With this survey, we plan to study whether the legitimacy (in the sense of conformity to the law) of a certain political view also affects its social desirability.
First, all subjects will answer a few demographic questions. Second, they will be asked about their opinion on prohibiting the building of minarets. Third, they will be asked to participate in a dictator game where they will have to split $3 between them and another subject. They will be randomized into four groups. Subjects in the control group will only be told that the other subject is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. Subjects in the "anti-minarets" treatment group will be also told that the other subject is against the building of minarets. Subjects in the "anti-minarets public support" will additionally be told that the 57.5% of Swiss voters is against minarets. Finally, subjects in the "anti-minarets legitimacy" will be additionally told that following the result of a referendum in 2009, building minarets is illegal in Switzerland.
Our main hypotheses are:
1) The donation rates will be reduced in the "anti-minarets" when compared to the donation rates in the control group.
2) The donation rates will be increased in the "anti-minarets legitimacy" when compared to the donation rates in the "anti-minarets public support" group.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bursztyn, Leonardo and Stefano Fiorin. 2017. "Legitimacy And Social Desirability: MTurk Online Survey." AEA RCT Registry. March 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2028-3.0
Former Citation
Bursztyn, Leonardo and Stefano Fiorin. 2017. "Legitimacy And Social Desirability: MTurk Online Survey." AEA RCT Registry. March 02. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2028/history/14653
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-02-24
Intervention End Date
2017-03-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Dictator game decisions.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Dictator game decisions are the answer to the following question:

"In this exercise, we matched you with a participant from another survey. You will not know who you are paired with; only the researchers will know this. However, we will provide you with some additional background information about the other participant.

The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland.

You and the other participant will split a total bonus of $3. You alone will make the decision of how much of the $3 you will receive and how much of the $3 the other participant will receive. Whatever decision you make will be implemented. You can choose to divide the $3 however you like. Whatever you do not give to the other person you get to keep. The amount you keep will be credited to your MTurk account in the form of a bonus payment.For example, if you decide to give $1.70, then you will receive a bonus payment of $1.30.

How much would you like to give to the other person?"

We will examine two outcomes:
a) the average and median amount donated;
b) whether the participant donated a positive amount.

In a second phase of the experiment we slightly modified the text of our survey to the following:

"In this exercise, we matched you with a participant from another anonymous survey. You will not know who you are paired with. However, we will provide you with some additional background information about the other participant."

The purpose is to make clear that the person who expresses the anti-minaret sentiment did so in private, and not because of public pressure.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will recruit survey participants on MTurk to conduct an online survey. With this survey, we plan to study whether the legitimacy (in the sense of conformity to the law) of a certain political view also affects its social desirability.
First, all subjects will answer a few demographic questions. Second, they will be asked what is their opinion on prohibiting the building of minarets. We will focus our analysis on participants who are against prohibiting the building of minarets. Third, they will be asked to participate in a dictator game where they will have to split $3 between them and another subject. They will be randomized into four groups. Subjects in the control group will only be told that the other subject is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. Subjects in the "anti-minarets" treatment group will be also told that the other subject is against minarets. Subjects in the "anti-minarets public support" will additionally be told that 57.5% of Swiss voters is against minarets. Finally, subjects in the "anti-minarets legitimacy" will be also told that following the result of a referendum, building minarets is illegal in Switzerland.
Participants in the control group will be asked whether they think minarets are illegal in Switzerland, and what percentage of Swiss people they think are against minarets.
Experimental Design Details
Control: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland.

Anti-Minarets: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. He supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland.

Anti-Minarets Public Support: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. Like 57.5% of Swiss respondents, the participant supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland.

Anti-Minarets Referendum: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. Building minarets is illegal in Switzerland, following a 2009 referendum. Like 57.5% of Swiss respondents, the participant supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland. However, he did not vote in the referendum since he was under legal voting age.

In a second phase of the experiment we slightly modified the text of our survey to the following:

Anti-Minarets: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. In our anonymous survey, like the one you just completed, he said he supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland.

Anti-Minarets Public Support: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. In our anonymous survey, like the one you just completed, he said he supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland. According to numbers from 2009, 57.5% of Swiss respondents are in favor of prohibiting the building of minarets.

Anti-Minarets Referendum: The participant you are matched with is a 24-year-old male from Switzerland. In our anonymous survey, like the one you just completed, he said he supports the prohibition of the building of minarets in Switzerland. Building minarets is illegal in Switzerland, following a 2009 referendum. According to numbers from 2009, 57.5% of Swiss respondents are in favor of prohibiting the building of minarets. However, the person you are matched with did not vote in the referendum since he was under legal voting age.

The purpose is to make clear that the person who expresses the anti-minaret sentiment did so in private, and not because of public pressure.
Randomization Method
The randomization will be done on Qualtrics, a website for conducting online surveys.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization will be the individual subject.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
400
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 control group, 100 anti-minarets, 100 anti-minarets public support, 100 anti-minarets referendum
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
N/A
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UCLA IRB
IRB Approval Date
2017-02-24
IRB Approval Number
IRB#16-001667
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials