Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We collect multiple measurements for each set of outcome variables, not to cherry-pick the most responsive survey items later, but to apply nonparametric estimation techniques to estimate measurement errors. Having multiple measurements is one of the essential identifying assumptions.
The first set of outcome variables on anti-Chinese animus is a shorter version of the realistic threat measure, intergroup anxiety, and prejudice measures used in Stephan et al. (1999).
The second set of outcome variables on perception about racism in the US is measured by asking how much respondents agree to seven statements. The statements are:
(1) Even though someone publicly says he/she dislikes Chinese immigrants, the person can still maintain good social relationships with most people.
(2) Expressing hatred against Chinese immigrants harms one's social reputation.
(3) People will appreciate it if someone spits out loud Chinese immigrants bring no good to the US.
(4) People will criticize if someone refers to the novel coronavirus as "China virus."
(5) It is not shameful to publicly support to reduce the number of Chinese immigrants because they threaten our prosperity.
(6) It is not socially acceptable to make a public statement that the US government should restrict the rights of Chinese immigrants.
(7) It is socially acceptable to petition to deport Chinese immigrants if they have any Chinese government connections.
The third set of outcome variables is xenophobic actions. We will ask three questions: a petition question, a dictator game, and a donation question. The dictator game is an incentivized survey item with real money at stake, and the other two questions ask about intentions to donate and to sign a petition.
In the petition question, we present two different petition forms, with one urging to protect the United States’ interests from Chinese threats and another urging to protect the safety and rights of Chinese immigrants in the US. We ask which petition survey participants would like to sign. If they choose to sign a petition to protect the US from Chinese threats, the racist action is coded as 1.
In a dictator game, we randomly match respondents with two other survey panelists, who are nearly identical except that one of them has a name that sounds like a Chinese name and a photo that looks like an East Asian. Next, we ask respondents to split $1 between themselves and their matched partners. To remove deception, we will randomly select 10% of the survey sample and will make actual payment to survey participants based on responses. We will explain that their answers will not affect the probability of winning the lottery. We repeat dictator games twice with two different partners to remove individual fixed effects, which include generosity in sharing money with someone else. We randomize the order of two dictator games to remove any order effect. If survey respondents share more money with a partner who has a Chinese name, the racist action is coded as 1.
In a donation question, we present descriptions about two organizations with opposing attitudes towards Chinese in the U.S. Next, we ask which organization respondents are willing to donate if they are given $1. If they choose to donate to the one who has a hostile attitude towards the Chinese in the U.S., the racist action is coded as 1.
We will also ask the respondents to provide their Twitter username information to construct a measure for xenophobic behavior in real life. We will do text-analysis of the tweets to identify those who posted any xenophobic tweets during the Pandemic. We will see if the measure from Twitter is correlated with other survey measures for xenophobic behavior to argue the validity of our survey measures.
Reference
Stephan, Walter G., Oscar Ybarra, and Guy Bachman. "Prejudice toward immigrants 1." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 29.11 (1999): 2221-2237.