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Field
Abstract
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Before
There are sizable gaps on indicators of human capital between the caste groups in India. Evidence suggests that such gaps, in part at least, are affected by discriminatory attitudes of school teachers. Our field experiment intends to provide evidence on how negative caste attitudes can be tempered to positively affect behavior of public service providers. We conduct a field experiment with an intended sample of ~500 teachers across India. We design and implement two treatments to mitigate discriminatory attitudes, the first, that demonstrates using illustrative cases the occupation success of individuals from lower ranked caste groups, and second, a short video clip intended to generate empathy towards lower ranked caste groups. We assess the effect of these treatments on two outcomes : (i) a measure of discrimination in grading by teachers; and (ii) donation decisions for NGOs associated with promoting welfare of particular caste groups. To further understand the channels through which treatment affects the outcomes, we measure attitudes along six dimensions, namely, (i) ritual practices regarding untouchability; (ii) perceived differences in cognitive; and (iii) non-cognitive abilities among children from different caste groups; (iv) ascription to caste-based occupational hierarchies; (v) attitudes towards the use of caste slur and (vi) sub-conscious caste bias. We expect that more negative attitudes are associated with greater discrimination in grading and lower donation to NGOs associated with welfare of lower ranked caste groups.
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After
There are sizable gaps on indicators of human capital between the caste groups in India. Evidence suggests that such gaps, in part at least, are affected by discriminatory attitudes of school teachers towards students from the group called the Scheduled Castes. Our study intends to provide evidence on the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes a large sample of school teachers from India. We then design a treatment to mitigate discrimination that operate through empathy towards the schedule castes.
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Trial End Date
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February 28, 2022
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April 30, 2023
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Field
Last Published
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December 03, 2021 10:33 PM
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February 20, 2023 08:49 AM
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Intervention (Public)
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The field experiment will be conducted on an intended sample of ~500 primary school teachers from several states in India.
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After
The experiment will be conducted online on an intended sample of 1500-3000 primary school teachers.
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Intervention End Date
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December 31, 2021
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March 31, 2023
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Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
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Before
Teachers’ behavior:
(i) Bias in grading exams – teachers are provided exams to grade where quality is either held constant or made to vary by the experimenter and the caste identity is exogenously assigned. For instance, teachers will be provided exams which contain the following combinations: (i) identical quality with different caste names; (ii) high quality exam assigned to high caste name; and (iii) high quality exam assigned to low caste name. These combinations will also help us evaluate whether biases become stronger when perceived traditional hierarchies are overturned as represented in case.
(ii) Donation to NGO’s promoting the welfare of caste groups – at the end of the experiment teachers are asked whether they wish to donate any amount out of their show-up fee to a charity promoting the educational success of Brahmins (high ranked caste group) or SCs.
Measures of caste-based attitudes on six dimensions:
(i) Willingness to forego monetary payoff to avoid supporting initiatives to employ more SCs in the capacity of cooks in schools – this involves an incentivized decision by teachers about whether they hypothetically support an initiative that would hire SC as cooks for preparing meals served to school children as part of the mid-day meal scheme. The incentives are structured such that higher levels of support for such an initiative result in higher monetary payoffs.
(ii) Perception of cognitive outcomes on vocabulary and cognitive tests for primary school children from SC and GC – teachers are told the scores that 5 year old children from the GC achieved in vocabulary and cognitive tests conducted by the Young Lives Project. Then, they are asked to provide their incentivized guess for the scores achieved in the same tests by SC children of the same age.
(iii) Perception of perseverance among primary school children from SC and GC – teachers are asked to provide their estimates on how likely three students (caste identifiable by name) are to finish a new school activity that requires them getting up early and donating half-an-hour of their free time at least three days in a week. This question is not incentivized.
(iv) Assignment of individuals to occupations traditionally associated with castes – we ask teachers to assign each of five individuals to one of five occupations which have a clear socioeconomic hierarchy, as well as association with caste based occupations. The individuals are described as having the same level of education and diligence, and their caste is clearly identifiable from their assigned names. This question is not incentivized.
(v) Attitudes towards the use of caste slur: teachers are presented with a text describing an event in which a SC individual is addressed with a derogatory caste-slur. Teachers are asked to select one among several given options to best describe the event. One of these options describes the event as discriminatory, because of the use of caste-slur. This question is not incentivized.
(vi) Caste-based implicit association test scores – these are standard implicit association tests, using caste as the identity marker to measure implicit caste-bias.
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After
Baseline measures of teachers’ attitudes towards SC individuals in the control group. We collect six intertwined and complementary measures: (i) willingness to forego monetary payoff to avoid supporting employment of SCs as cooks in schools; (ii) perceptions of gaps in cognitive outcomes between scheduled caste (SC) and general category (GC); (iii) differences in perceived perseverance of SC and GC; (iv) associations between castes and occupations; v) attitudes towards the use of caste slurs; and vi) possibly caste- based implicit association test scores
We assess treatment impacts using two outcomes: (i) scores in exams of SC and GC students; and (ii) behavior in a third party punishment game.
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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The treatments are designed to mitigate widely held views among GC teachers. We refer to the two treatments as the success story treatment and empathy treatment.
Accordingly, our experiment incorporates two specific treatments and intends to measure their impact on the set of primary outcomes outlined above.
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After
As a baseline measure, we intend to provide evidence on the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes a large sample of school teachers from India.
We then design a treatment to mitigate discrimination that operate through empathy towards the schedule castes.
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Randomization Method
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Subjects are randomized into one of the two treatments – success or empathy treatment. The randomization is done using a computer.
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The randomization is done using a computer.
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Randomization Unit
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The unit of randomization is the individual subject who participated in the experiment.
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Individual teacher.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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Around ~500 Teachers
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NA
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Field
Planned Number of Observations
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Around ~500 Teachers
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1500-3000 Teachers
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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30% Success Video Treatment; 30% Empathy Treatment; 40% Control
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50% Treatment; 50% Control
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Keyword(s)
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Behavior, Education
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Behavior
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Intervention (Hidden)
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The field experiment will be conducted on an intended sample of ~500 primary school teachers from several states in India.
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Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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We also intend to look at whether negative attitudes are relevant when considering the domain of gender. We hence also collect data on two gender related attitudes:
(i) Willingness to allow food menstruating women to cook for their family – this involves an incentivized decision by teachers about whether they hypothetically agree to allow women in their family who are menstruating to be able to work in their kitchen. Giving assent gives the teacher a positive monetary payoff, thus refusal to allow women in their family suggests a psychological cost for breaking gender-based norm related to taboos of menstruation.
(ii) Perception of cognitive outcomes on vocabulary and cognitive tests for primary school girls and boys – teachers are asked to provide incentivized guess about the scores of 5-year-old girls in a vocabulary and cognitive test when provided with the scores that boys achieved in the same assessment, conducted by the Young Lives Project.
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After
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