Attitudes towards democracy and political rights among Chinese and their diaspora
Last registered on May 24, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information
General Information
Title
Attitudes towards democracy and political rights among Chinese and their diaspora
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006791
Initial registration date
November 27, 2020
Last updated
May 24, 2021 1:12 PM EDT
Location(s)
Country
Canada
Region
Country
United States of America
Region
Primary Investigator
Name
Diego Ramos-Toro
Affiliation
Dartmouth College
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Other Primary Investigator(s)
PI Name
Louis Putterman
PI Affiliation
Brown University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Josie I Chen
PI Affiliation
National Taiwan University
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Additional Trial Information
Status
In development
Start date
2020-11-30
End date
2021-07-31
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral, Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We aim to conduct a set of surveys and a novel decision-making procedure in order to derive insights into views of unrestricted central authority versus political democracy and political freedom held by people of China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan and their diaspora in Canada and the U.S. We are investigating the nature of differences of views on these subjects as they vary by age cohort, education, socioeconomic status, and past political “class background” as that term was understood in China under Mao Zedong, and by region of China or Hong Kong or Taiwan, plus differences in the degree of exposure to life in Canada and the U.S. The project will help social scientists to obtain a better understanding of some factors that may govern whether China will transition from one-party rule to political democracy in the next few decades, a goal frequently expressed by U.S. leaders when adopting an approach of “constructive engagement” in response to China’s post-1978 “reform and opening.” Moreover, it will provide a novel experimental tool that can be used by future researchers to examine preference for democracy in an indirect, incentivized way, which can be a valuable tool in contexts where these issues are politically sensitive.
External Link(s)
Registration Citation
Citation
I Chen, Josie, Louis Putterman and Diego Ramos-Toro. 2021. "Attitudes towards democracy and political rights among Chinese and their diaspora." AEA RCT Registry. May 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6791-2.0.
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details
Interventions
Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-11-30
Intervention End Date
2021-07-31
Primary Outcomes
Primary Outcomes (end points)
Survey and experimental measures of support for democracy; Political Opinions about China
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Secondary Outcomes
Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Survey measures of trust, cooperation, and conditional cooperation; secondary political opinions about China
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Experimental Design
Experimental Design
Participants will provide detailed demographic information at the beginning of the survey, and we will have a system that will allow us to select a balanced sample (along dimensions such as age, gender, and socioeconomic status) among those who are interested. We will then collect survey and experimental measures from those deemed eligible to participate. We will initially recruit 1100 participants but will increase the sample size if adequate funding is obtained.
Experimental Design Details
At the beginning of the session, participants will be randomly assigned to different representative experiences of rural Chinese Nationals with the policies imposed by the Chinese Communist Party in the past 3-4 decades. Particularly, they will be assigned to one of the following treatment branches: Positive Representative Story, Negative Representative Story, Placebo Story (about Chinese Cuisine), and No Story. After this intervention, participants will proceed to provide survey and experimental responses.

The experimental measure will be a novel decision-making procedure whereby participants will be assigned to a randomly-formed group of 5, and they will then report their preference (strong, moderate, or indifferent) for one of two alternatives of decision-making procedures to solve a moderately-challenging question: One alternative in which researchers select a group member and enforces their answer to the question (authority-based decision) vs. another decision-making procedure that instead favors the most frequent answer to such a question (majority-based decision). There will be a randomization embedded in the experiment, whereby half of the participants will be shown a message that suggests that, when selecting the authority in the decision-based task, higher self-reported math ability can be an important criterion used.
Randomization Method
Respondents will be randomly assigned to control and treatment groups by the Qualtrics software.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No
Experiment Characteristics
Sample size: planned number of clusters
1100
Sample size: planned number of observations
1100
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
184 per 'representative-experience' treatment branch (i.e., per group of participants exposed to the same 'representative' intervention and to the same randomization embedded in the experiment); 184 per 'placebo/pure control' treatment branch (i.e., per group of participants exposed to no or placebo intervention and to the same randomization embedded in the experiment).
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB
INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS (IRBs)
IRB Name
Committee on Human Subjects Research Activities - Brown University
IRB Approval Date
2020-11-20
IRB Approval Number
2009002809
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial
Post Trial Information
Study Withdrawal
Intervention
Is the intervention completed?
No
Is 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