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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
1. Sampling
The study was conducted at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics (Busara) in Nairobi, Kenya, a facility specially designed for social science studies. Busara maintains an active subject pool of more than 7,000 Nairobi residents. For the present study, 318 subjects who had previously signed-up to be part of the Busara subjet pool were recruited from local universities using SMS and phone calls and were informed that they would be paid KES 300 (approx. USD 7.20 PPP)1. Subjects were told that they were invited to participate in a study about their behavior and preferences. Recruitment was limited to university students to ensure comprehension of the arguments contained in primes. Restricting participation to University students also ensures comprehension English. Although Universities do not typically require an official test of English proficiency, matriculating students are expected to be proficient in written and spoken English, and much of the instruction is in English. Additionally, Busara has confirmed through previous studies that the vast majority of Kenyan university students are highly proficient in English. The sample includes 119 males and 173 females. All subjects were over 18 years of age, with a mean age of 22 and a maximum age of 26.
To control for heterogeneity in religious background, we restricted the sample to Christians by omitting individuals identified as ethnically Nubian from recruitment. Since most Muslims in the Busara subject pool belong to this ethnicity, we believed this to be the best way to identify Christians while avoiding any issues of self-selection that might arise by asking individuals their religion before participation. As described below, 24 individuals in the study either failed to report a religion identified as “no religion” or identified as “other,” and 2 individuals identified as Muslim. We will control for this fact by restricting our analysis as described below.
2. Experimental Procedure
After receiving a text message inviting them to participate in the study, individuals came to the Busara lab in Nairobi, Kenya, for experimental sessions lasting approximately one and half hours. Each session included up to 25 participants. Sessions were administered by two female Kenyan research assistants, who spoke English and Swahili fluently and were trained in helping subjects with comprehension. The experiment was conducted in English.
Subjects were randomly assigned to one of 25 computer workstations with partitions on three sides, so that they were unable to see or speak with the other subjects. Within each session, individuals were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. All of the treatments and measures were implemented on HP TouchSmart 310 desktop computers running Windows 7. Each participant wore headphones and watched the video prime on his or her own computer. Subjects used the touch screen exclusively to mitigate effects of individual differences in experiences using a mouse and keyboard. All treatments were implemented using z-Tree software (Fischbacher 2007).
Each session progressed as follows:
1. Practice IAT
2. Cartoon ST-IAT
3. Nature ST-IAT
4. Video Prime (4 minutes)
5. Writing task and comprehension questions
6. Self-reported religiosity questionnaire
7. Practice IAT
8. Religion ST-IAT
9. Cantril ladder
10. WVS tolerance questionnaire
11. PANAS questionnaire
12. Demographics survey
At the conclusion of the final questionnaire, participants were debriefed and paid KES 300 in cash.
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After
1. Sampling
The study was conducted at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics (Busara) in Nairobi, Kenya, a facility specially designed for social science studies. Busara maintains an active subject pool of more than 7,000 Nairobi residents. For the present study, 318 subjects who had previously signed-up to be part of the Busara subjet pool were recruited from local universities using SMS and phone calls and were informed that they would be paid KES 300 (approx. USD 7.20 PPP)1. Subjects were told that they were invited to participate in a study about their behavior and preferences. Recruitment was limited to university students to ensure comprehension of the arguments contained in primes. Restricting participation to University students also ensures comprehension English. Although Universities do not typically require an official test of English proficiency, matriculating students are expected to be proficient in written and spoken English, and much of the instruction is in English. Additionally, Busara has confirmed through previous studies that the vast majority of Kenyan university students are highly proficient in English. The sample includes 183 males and 133 females. All subjects were over 18 years of age, with a mean age of 22 and a maximum age of 26.
To control for heterogeneity in religious background, we restricted the sample to Christians by omitting individuals identified as ethnically Nubian from recruitment. Since most Muslims in the Busara subject pool belong to this ethnicity, we believed this to be the best way to identify Christians while avoiding any issues of self-selection that might arise by asking individuals their religion before participation. As described below, 24 individuals in the study either failed to report a religion identified as “no religion” or identified as “other,” and 2 individuals identified as Muslim. We will control for this fact by restricting our analysis as described below.
2. Experimental Procedure
After receiving a text message inviting them to participate in the study, individuals came to the Busara lab in Nairobi, Kenya, for experimental sessions lasting approximately one and half hours. Each session included up to 25 participants. Sessions were administered by two female Kenyan research assistants, who spoke English and Swahili fluently and were trained in helping subjects with comprehension. The experiment was conducted in English.
Subjects were randomly assigned to one of 25 computer workstations with partitions on three sides, so that they were unable to see or speak with the other subjects. Within each session, individuals were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. All of the treatments and measures were implemented on HP TouchSmart 310 desktop computers running Windows 7. Each participant wore headphones and watched the video prime on his or her own computer. Subjects used the touch screen exclusively to mitigate effects of individual differences in experiences using a mouse and keyboard. All treatments were implemented using z-Tree software (Fischbacher 2007).
Each session progressed as follows:
1. Practice IAT
2. Cartoon ST-IAT
3. Nature ST-IAT
4. Video Prime (4 minutes)
5. Writing task and comprehension questions
6. Self-reported religiosity questionnaire
7. Practice IAT
8. Religion ST-IAT
9. Cantril ladder
10. WVS tolerance questionnaire
11. PANAS questionnaire
12. Demographics survey
At the conclusion of the final questionnaire, participants were debriefed and paid KES 300 in cash.
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