Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19

Last registered on October 08, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006571
Initial registration date
October 08, 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 08, 2020, 7:25 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Korea (Republic of)
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Inbok Rhee
Affiliation
KDI School of Public Policy and Management
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Chrysostomos Tabakis
PI Affiliation
KDI School of Public Policy and Management
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Benjamin Ho
PI Affiliation
Vassar College
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Baran Han
PI Affiliation
KDI School of Public Policy and Management
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-10-12
End date
2021-08-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study employs a survey experiment in which we use a standard social psychology induction of feelings of fear in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea to test in-group favoritism and out-group bias toward immigrants. This is done by measuring the effect of fear on political attitudes and its impact on in-group favoritism in a standard dictator game. The study will help us understand the importance of fear in inducing anti-immigrant sentiments and could shed some light on the role of the media in creating division.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Han, Baran et al. 2020. "Fear and Favoritism in the Time of COVID-19." AEA RCT Registry. October 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6571-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Individuals will be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. 2x3 factorial design where subjects are exposed to a fear/hope induction interacted with exposure to one of three recent media accounts of quarantine violations that differ only by the ethnicity of the quarantine violator.
Intervention Start Date
2020-10-12
Intervention End Date
2020-10-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Non-native sentiment (in-group favoritism) as measured by dictator game allocations toward a non-native charity in comparison with allocations to a general charity or money kept by the subject.
Non-native sentiment as measured by economic preferences variables of reciprocity, altruism, risk, patience from Pew, Gallop, Global Preferences Survey, etc.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Which groups do you anticipate will display heterogeneous effects?
We are interested in heterogeneity by economic variables such as risk aversion, patience, trust, altruism.
But also by demographics and political views.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
2x3 factorial design where subjects are exposed to a fear/hope induction interacted with exposure to one of three recent media accounts of quarantine violations that differ only by the ethnicity of the quarantine violator.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters considered, so 4,000 individual adults.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The planned full sample size is 4,000.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Our full sample size is 4000, and so our 2x3 design has 666 people in each subsample.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Using Kritikos and Tan (IZA 2014), who ran a similar style dictator game, we are assuming a donation rate of 20% and a standard deviation of 32%. We assume the usual alpha of .05 and a beta of .80. Our full sample size is 4000, and so our 2x3 design has 666 people in each subsample. This will allow us to detect a treatment size of 5% (e.g. from 20% to 25%) between our subsample treatment. Just comparing our fear (2000 subjects) versus hope (2000 subjects) interventions allows us to detect a treatment effect of 2.8% for an alpha value of 0.1.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Vassar College
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-06
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-analysis plan

MD5: 69359ef3b4c6ba2e7df72b57ed688991

SHA1: 19a9c4f328f7706dd5531a7769fee1c0b3490f15

Uploaded At: October 08, 2020

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