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Lost Control - Do Personal Experiences in the Corona Pandemic Change Meritocratic Beliefs or Preferences for Redistribution?

Last registered on May 18, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Lost Control - Do Personal Experiences in the Corona Pandemic Change Meritocratic Beliefs or Preferences for Redistribution?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005856
Initial registration date
May 14, 2020

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
May 18, 2020, 12:36 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Sören Harrs
Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Maj-Britt Sterba
PI Affiliation
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-05-14
End date
2020-05-21
Keywords
Governance, Health
Additional Keywords
distributive justice, sense of control, personal experience, meritocratic beliefs, COVID-19
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of people around the world: governments have imposed lock-downs, many people have already lost their main source of income and millions face the risk to fall sick to the virus. We use a survey experiment to investigate how personal experiences during the corona pandemic affect beliefs about the determinants of economic success and preferences for redistribution.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Harrs, Sören and Maj-Britt Sterba. 2020. "Lost Control - Do Personal Experiences in the Corona Pandemic Change Meritocratic Beliefs or Preferences for Redistribution?." AEA RCT Registry. May 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5856-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Survey Experiment.
Intervention Start Date
2020-05-14
Intervention End Date
2020-05-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Meritocratic beliefs,
third party redistribution,
fairness types,
altruism
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
see PAP

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
General policy attitudes, Corona-related policy attitudes, domain-specific beliefs about control in life
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
see PAP

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Survey Experiment.
Experimental Design Details
We use a survey experiment to investigate the effect of sense of control on 1) redistributive preferences and 2) beliefs about the determinants of economic success (meritocratic beliefs hereafter). We employ the priming technique to experimentally manipulate the participants' sense of control. In the two main treatments, T-High Control and T-Low Control, participants read true information about health and labour market effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Afterwards they are asked to recall and describe a personal experience from the last 2 months where they experienced a lot of control (T-High Control) or no control (T-Low Control). In the neutral comparison group (T-Neutral), the participants' text and recall exercise is not related to COVID-19. With this manipulation we aim to disentangle a general corona priming effect from the recall of a personal experience of high/low control. Our main treatment comparison will be between T-High Control and T-Low Control. The neutral condition serves as a benchmark to assess the size and direction of the general corona priming effect.
Randomization Method
Randomization by computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
756
Sample size: planned number of observations
756
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
252
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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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