Do we hold men more responsible than women?

Last registered on December 18, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Do we hold men more responsible than women?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000853
Initial registration date
September 28, 2015

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
September 28, 2015, 7:39 AM EDT

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

Last updated
December 18, 2021, 4:29 AM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Norwegian School of Economics

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2015-09-22
End date
2023-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In society, we observe a large variance in outcomes for males. In the US, men occupy the majority of top level jobs, but at the same time they constitute 91 per cent of the prison population, and lag behind women in both high school and college attainment. What can explain these patterns? In this project, we study experimentally whether males are held more responsible for outcomes than females, using a novel design implemented on a representative sample of Americans. The participants make distributive choices involving men and women and we randomly manipulate the gender composition in the distributive situations. This allows us to study whether the participants to a greater extent hold stakeholders responsible for outcomes in single-sex distributive situations only involving men than in single-sex distributive situations only involving women. We also study redistributive behavior in mixed-sex environments, where we manipulate whether the male or the female has more earnings.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Falch, Ranveig. 2021. "Do we hold men more responsible than women?." AEA RCT Registry. December 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.853-7.199999999999999
Former Citation
Falch, Ranveig. 2021. "Do we hold men more responsible than women?." AEA RCT Registry. December 18. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/853/history/106528
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2015-09-22
Intervention End Date
2015-10-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The main dependent variable in the analysis will be the amount of inequality implemented by the spectator, which captures the extent to which individuals are held responsible for their earnings. We calculate inequality as the absolute value of the difference in payment to the two workers divided by total payment. Subsidiarily, we will also report regressions where the dependent variable is a dummy variable for whether the spectator has equalized incomes.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In this project, we study experimentally whether males are held more responsible for outcomes than females, using a novel design implemented on a representative sample of Americans. The participants make distributive choices involving men and women and we randomly manipulate the gender composition in the distributive situations. This allows us to study whether the participants to a greater extent hold stakeholders responsible for outcomes in single-sex distributive situations only involving men than in single-sex distributive situations only involving women. We also study redistributive behavior in mixed-sex environments, where we manipulate whether the male or the female has more earnings.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2000 individuals.
Sample size: planned number of observations
2000 individuals.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
250 individuals in each of the eight treatment arms, T1-T8.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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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