Prejudice in the Age of Brexit: A Field -Experiment among British and Europeans residents in the UK

Last registered on November 10, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Prejudice in the Age of Brexit: A Field -Experiment among British and Europeans residents in the UK

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002576

Initial registration date

November 10, 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

November 10, 2017, 4:31 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

England

Primary Investigator

Name

Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon

Affiliation

University of Kent

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Markus Bindemann

PI Affiliation

University of Kent

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2017-11-18

End date

2018-03-03

Keywords

Electoral

Additional Keywords

Brexit, immigration, anti-social behaviour, peer effects

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

The recent Brexit vote was perceived as a statement against immigration and has repercussions for the 2.5 million Europeans (or 4% of the population) living in the UK (2011 Census). This project aims to understand the impact of Brexit on the way that Europeans and British residents interact. To do that, we combine psychological and economic approaches to measure individual attitudes towards European residents of the UK and test the role of Brexit in triggering anti-social behavior. We use an experimental design to assess whether Brexit elicits racial prejudice, and how this might affect allocations towards European residents in the UK. We not only apply explicit measures of prejudice, but highly sensitive implicit measures to determine whether Brexit might even elicit such feelings covertly in pro-European British residents that had voted to remain.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bindemann, Markus and Fernanda Leite Lopez de Leon. 2017. "Prejudice in the Age of Brexit: A Field -Experiment among British and Europeans residents in the UK." AEA RCT Registry. November 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2576-1.0

Former Citation

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We will conduct a computer based survey, using Qualtrics software. It includes an incentivized quiz on UK facts (and correct answers will be revealed after each question). Participants will be assigned to one out of three quiz conditions. In the first treatment (“Leave”) condition, participants will be asked about EU referendum results for (selected) constituencies where most of voters voted for the UK to ‘Leave the EU’. In the second treatment (“Remain”) condition, participants will be asked about EU referendum results for (selected) constituencies where most of voters voted for the UK to ‘Remain in the EU’. The “control” condition will ask questions on gender composition and population size of (selected) constituencies. The final purpose is to manipulate participants’ perceptions about regional support for Brexit and immigration.

Intervention Start Date

2017-11-18

Intervention End Date

2018-03-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

We focus on three main outcomes to evaluate the effects on anti-social behavior and preferences: (i) an Implicit Association Test (collected pre- and after-intervention), (ii) giving in a dictator game to other participants with hypothetical UK or non-UK names, and (iii) survey questions that address participants’ relationship with the UK, views on immigration and immigrants and preferred policies towards immigration.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The survey will be taken by British and Europeans residents in the UK, in public libraries in the South East of England and among students at University of Kent. Part of the survey includes a dictator game. Half of the participants will be dictators (always a British person) and half, will be receivers (British or Europeans).

Dictators can be assigned to one out of nine conditions (C1-C9), determined by the combination of the three quiz conditions (“Leave”, “Remain” and “Control”), and the three conditions in the dictator game [(i) giving to someone with an hypothetical “British name” or (ii) to someone with a name associated to a “high-income European country” or (iii) to someone with a name associated to a “low-income European country”).

Receivers can be assigned to one out of three quiz conditions (“Leave”, “Remain” and “Control”), C10-C12.

We expect to collect data on 360 participants, in which 270 are British and 90 are Europeans. To ensure that all dictators are British, British participants will be assigned with probability 2/27 to one out of the nine (dictator) conditions (C1-C9) and with probability 3/27 to one out of three (receiver) conditions (C10-C12). Europeans will be assigned with probability 1/3 to one out of the three (receiver) conditions (C10-C12).

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

randomization done by the computer, via Qualtrics software

Randomization Unit

individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

360 individuals in 4 public libraries and at University of Kent (note that the treatment is assigned at the individual level - i.e., the design is not clustered)

Sample size: planned number of observations

360

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

120 in the “Leave” condition (60 receivers; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical British name; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a high-income European country; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a low-income European country)

120 in the “Remain” condition (60 receivers; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical British name; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a high-income European country; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a low-income European country)

120 in the “Control” condition (60 receivers; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical British name; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a high-income European country; 20 dictators giving to another participant with an hypothetical name associated to a low-income European country)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB