Abstract
Motivation, aspirations and self-esteem have been found to be important determinants of academic performance and, subsequently, of labour market outcomes. Students who do not believe in their ability to succeed may exert little effort, display lower cognitive skills or interact differently with their peers, severely hampering their final achievements. Interventions featuring positive role models have been found effective in raising student's aspirations and, eventually, their academic achievements, and movies conveying hopeful messages are specifically effective on the most disadvantaged students. In this experiment, we test the effect of a short motivational video, where a role model describes their difficult initial condition and their happy ending, on primary and secondary school students' outcomes such as effort, cognitive abilities, prosocial behavior, optimism, and aspirations. Additionally, we test if the gender of the role model matters for the impact, and specifically if the effects are larger for students watching a video with a gender-concordant role model. The experiment is set in one school in Naples, Italy, and involves 400 students of low socio-economic background. All students will be randomized in three treatment arms: students in the first treatment arm will watch a video where a role model of their same gender describe how, starting from a situation of difficulty, s/he managed to succeed in life by finding and pursuing his/her passions. Students in the second treatment arm are shown a similar motivational video featuring a role model of the opposite gender of the respondent. Students in the control group will all watch a video where a gender-concordant role model thanks them for their time in answering to the subsequent survey.