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Is it the Message or the Messenger? Examining Bias in Immigration Beliefs

Last registered on February 11, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Is it the Message or the Messenger? Examining Bias in Immigration Beliefs
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006552
Initial registration date
October 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
October 15, 2020, 12:34 PM EDT

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

Last updated
February 11, 2022, 9:59 AM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Toronto

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
UCLA
PI Affiliation
Columbia University

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2020-10-16
End date
2021-11-06
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study the influence of presidential rhetoric about immigration on belief formation, and separately consider message content versus the source of a statement. Our primary research question for the study is: Does a partisan source influence an individual’s political views, holding the content of a message fixed?
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Afrouzi, Hassan , Carolina Arteaga and Emily Weisburst. 2022. "Is it the Message or the Messenger? Examining Bias in Immigration Beliefs." AEA RCT Registry. February 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6552-3.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-10-16
Intervention End Date
2020-11-06

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Immigrant attitude index
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Immigrant attitude index which is calculated as an average of responses to post-intervention questions in the survey. Each question will be standardized before it is included in this average.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Anti-immigrant perception of the audio-clip; Perception of the source of the audio clip; Charity donation; Overall view of immigrants; Whether Immigration Should be Increased; Voting Plans for 2020 Presidential Election. Additionally, we will investigate sub-indices of the primary index by topic type: Overall Immigrant Views; Dreamers; Undocumented Immigrants; Immigration Enforcement; and Immigration and Crime.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Anti-immigrant perception of the audio-clip: In your opinion, how anti-immigrant was the audio segment you just heard? (0-100 scale)
Perception of the source of the audio clip: Which president do you think made the speech you just heard? and How likely do you think it is that President (Trump/Obama) made the speech you just heard? (0-100)
Charity Donation: Choice to donate part of a potential lottery prize (total $25) to a pro-immigrant charity (American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU) vs. an anti-immigrant charity (Federation for American Immigration Reform - FAIR)
Overall View of Immigrants: Overall, in your opinion, how positive or negative is the contribution of immigrants to the United States? (-100 to 100 scale)
Whether Immigration Should be Increased: In your view, should immigration be kept at its present level, increased or decreased?
Voting Plans for 2020 Presidential Election: At this point in time, which candidate will you most likely support for the next presidential election?

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All participants will hear a weather forecast audio clip (control condition). Our experiment will then randomly expose participants to one of ten audio segments as well as an additional control condition of no additional audio clip (beyond weather clip baseline). Randomization will be stratified by political party affiliation.
Experimental Design Details
All participants will hear a weather forecast audio clip. We will then stratify participants by political party. For each political party, there are 11 arms.
1: No additional audio clip (control)
2: Non-Partisan Turkey Pardon Trump
3: Non-Partisan Turkey Pardon Obama
4: Anti-Immigrant Speech Trump
5: Anti-Immigrant Speech Trump (Actor Version)
6: Anti-Immigrant Speech Obama
7: Anti-Immigrant Speech Obama (Actor Version)
8: Pro-Immigrant Speech Trump
9: Pro-Immigrant Speech Trump (Actor Version)
10: Pro-Immigrant Speech Obama
11: Pro-Immigrant Speech Obama (Actor Version)
Randomization Method
We will use the randomization feature in qualtrics.
Randomization Unit
Randomize at the party affiliation level (Democrat (liberal) vs. Republican (conservative).
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2 political parties: 10 treatment arms and 1 control group within each party.
Sample size: planned number of observations
13,530 target (14,040 recruited)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
615 per treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We will be able to detect effects of size 0.125 of the Anti Immigration standardize index, which corresponds to 11% of the difference between republicans and democrats. SE 0.063991.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Toronto
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-09
IRB Approval Number
38128
IRB Name
Columbia University
IRB Approval Date
2020-09-23
IRB Approval Number
AAAT1883
IRB Name
University of California, Los Angeles
IRB Approval Date
2020-07-22
IRB Approval Number
IRB#19-001127
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
November 10, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
November 10, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
11 treatment arms for each political party (Democrats & Republicans)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
19780
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
6692 Democrats with arms size 594 to 675. 5881 Republicans with arms size 501 to 576.
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials