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Abstract We study what black and white respondents know about the economic circumstances and opportunities of their own racial group, as well as the other racial groups. We check how these perceptions compare to reality and how they shape attitudes towards government intervention and policies. We randomly provide respondents information about the historical evolution of earnings for black and white men and women, as well as about the social mobility for black and white children and see how this shapes their views about racial disparities and government policies. We study what black and white respondents know about the economic circumstances and opportunities of their own racial group, as well as the other racial groups. We check how these perceptions compare to reality and how they shape attitudes towards government intervention and policies. We randomly provide respondents information about the historical evolution of earnings for black and white men and women, as well as about the social mobility for black and white children and see how this shapes their views about racial disparities and government policies. We also conduct a simplified survey on very young people aged 13 to 18 to measure their perceptions and attitudes on race related topics. We focus on this age group since these teenage years are very impressionable years in which people form their views and this will help us to understand at what age certain attitudes already become well-established in people minds. We collect a second wave of respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing them to the previous wave, we are able to check how this crisis affected people's perceptions and their policy preferences.
Trial End Date June 30, 2020 June 30, 2021
Last Published May 27, 2019 05:02 PM June 02, 2020 02:28 PM
Intervention (Public) We elicit respondents' perceptions about the economic circumstances of their racial group and the other racial group, as well as about a range of government policies. In a randomized way, we provide respondents with information about the historical evolution of earnings for black and white men and women, or about the social mobility, i.e., the likelihood that black and white children born in poor families make it to each quintile of the income distribution. The control groups sees no information. We elicit respondents' perceptions about the economic circumstances of their racial group and the other racial group, as well as about a range of government policies. In a randomized way, we provide respondents (the teenagers and the first wave of adults) with information about the historical evolution of earnings for black and white men and women, or about the social mobility, i.e., the likelihood that black and white children born in poor families make it to each quintile of the income distribution. In the second wave of adults collected during the COVID19 pandemic, we explain in a randomized way why poor people and black people are more likely to be economically affected by this crisis. The control groups sees no information.
Intervention End Date September 30, 2019 September 30, 2020
Experimental Design (Public) We will randomize the information provided respondents. One group sees the historical evolution of earnings for white and black men and women; the other group sees probabilities of black and white children born in poor families to make it to each quintile of the income distribution; the control groups sees no information. We also randomize the order in which perceptions are elicited about black and white people (some see questions about black people first, others about white people first). We also randomize the amount of monetary incentives provided to respondents for correct answers. We will randomize the information provided respondents. One group sees the historical evolution of earnings for white and black men and women; the other group sees probabilities of black and white children born in poor families to make it to each quintile of the income distribution; the control groups sees no information. In the second wave, one group sees the negative effect of the crisis on poor people; the other group sees the negative effect of the crisis on black people. We also randomize the order in which perceptions are elicited about black and white people (some see questions about black people first, others about white people first). We also randomize the amount of monetary incentives provided to respondents for correct answers.
Planned Number of Clusters 10,000 adult individuals 5,000 adult individuals in first wave 2,000 adult individuals in second wave 2,000 teenager (13-17 yo) individuals
Planned Number of Observations 10,000 adult individuals 5,000 adult individuals in first wave 2,000 adult individuals in second wave 2,000 teenager (13-17 yo) individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms 417 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 417 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 416 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 416 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 416 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 416 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 416 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 416 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 416 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 416 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first First Adult Wave: 208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 208 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 209 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 209 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first Second Adult Wave: 83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 1, monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 1 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 83 individuals with Treatment 2 and no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 84 control individuals with monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first 84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Blacks first 84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 1, questions on Whites first 84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Blacks first 84 control individuals with no monetary incentives, order 2, questions on Whites first Teenagers: 167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 1, questions on Blacks first 167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 1, questions on Whites first 167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 2, questions on Blacks first 167 individuals with Treatment 1, order 2, questions on Whites first 167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 1, questions on Blacks first 167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 1, questions on Whites first 167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 2, questions on Blacks first 167 individuals with Treatment 2, order 2, questions on Whites first 166 control individuals, order 1, questions on Blacks first 166 control individuals, order 1, questions on Whites first 166 control individuals, order 2, questions on Blacks first 166 control individuals, order 2, questions on Whites first
Intervention (Hidden) The intervention will consist in two distinct information treatments. Participants will be randomized in three groups. One group, the control group, will not receive any treatments while the other two groups will receive one of the two treatments each. The two treatments focus on two different topics. The first is on the difference between the intergenerational mobility for Whites and Blacks in the US. The second one is on how the earnings evolved differently in the US from 1970 to today for Whites and Blacks differentiating between men and women as well. More precisely, the first treatment consists in a short video (less than 2 minutes). To show the intergenerational mobility in a simple and understandable way, in the animation we show 100 kids starting from the bottom of a ladder (which represents the bottom quintile of the parents income distribution) who move to the five different steps of a second ladder (where every step represents a quintile of the income distribution of the children when they grow up). We will show this animation twice, one with 100 black kids and one with 100 white kids. At the end of the video, we put the two final ladders one next to the other. In this way we allow the participants to easily visualize and compare the different rate of intergenerational mobility between Whites and Blacks. The second treatment also consists in a short video (around 1 minute). in this animation, to show how earnings evolved over time, we are using an animated line graph. In a first vertical line, representing the earnings in 1970, four points will appear indicating the average earnings for white men, white women, black men and black women back in 1970. Same thing will happen on a second vertical line representing the average earnings of today (2017). At this point, straight lines will connect the two points. In this way, participants will easily visualize how much the evolution of earnings differed across the four different groups. The intervention will consist in two distinct information treatments. Participants will be randomized in three groups. One group, the control group, will not receive any treatments while the other two groups will receive one of the two treatments each. The two treatments focus on two different topics. The first is on the difference between the intergenerational mobility for Whites and Blacks in the US. The second one is on how the earnings evolved differently in the US from 1970 to today for Whites and Blacks differentiating between men and women as well. More precisely, the first treatment consists in a short video (less than 2 minutes). To show the intergenerational mobility in a simple and understandable way, in the animation we show 100 kids starting from the bottom of a ladder (which represents the bottom quintile of the parents income distribution) who move to the five different steps of a second ladder (where every step represents a quintile of the income distribution of the children when they grow up). We will show this animation twice, one with 100 black kids and one with 100 white kids. At the end of the video, we put the two final ladders one next to the other. In this way we allow the participants to easily visualize and compare the different rate of intergenerational mobility between Whites and Blacks. The second treatment also consists in a short video (around 1 minute). In this animation, to show how earnings evolved over time, we are using an animated line graph. In a first vertical line, representing the earnings in 1970, four points will appear indicating the average earnings for white men, white women, black men and black women back in 1970. Same thing will happen on a second vertical line representing the average earnings of today (2017). At this point, straight lines will connect the two points. In this way, participants will easily visualize how much the evolution of earnings differed across the four different groups. During the second wave of the survey, we will have again two different treatments. The first one will focus on the increase in inequality cause by the COVID19 pandemic between poor and rich people while the second will be on the increase in inequality between black and white people. Both treatments will consist in a short video (less than 1 minute) with a similar wording to help us disentangle the two different effects. In the video we will start by telling that the unemployment rate increased a lot because of the COVID19 pandemic and that those who are more likely to lose their job are those that can't work from home. In the first treatment we highlight that these jobs are more common among poor people so that in the end poor people will suffer the most from the crisis. In the second treatment we instead highlight that these same jobs are more common among black people compared to white people so that in the end black people will suffer the most from the crisis.
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Irbs

Field Before After
IRB Name Harvard IRB
IRB Approval Date May 18, 2020
IRB Approval Number IRB18-1747
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