Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes

Last registered on March 21, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009108
Initial registration date
March 21, 2022

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
March 21, 2022, 1:19 PM EDT

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

Locations

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
Elsa Voytas
PI Affiliation
Dartmouth College
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-03-25
End date
2023-03-31
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral, Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We describe the analysis plan for an online intervention designed to learn the historical views among different demographic groups in the US and to determine whether enquiring about these views has an effect on political attitudes. Additionally, we are interested in examining how these patterns and effects vary by race and political ideology. The study will be conducted online with 1600 participants, half of which will be African American, while a quarter will be white conservatives. Participants will be asked to share their views on various historical issues pertaining to race. The order of the questions will allow us to examine whether asking participants to share and support their beliefs on various historical issues has an effect on political views. These historical views will also serve as the basis for a treatment that we will implement in a subsequent round of data collection. We outline the study design, the treatments, and the main heterogeneous treatment effects that we will examine.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ramos-Toro, Diego and Elsa Voytas. 2022. "Historical Narratives and Political Attitudes." AEA RCT Registry. March 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9108-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-03-25
Intervention End Date
2022-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
There are two sets of key outcome variables. The first set pertains to political attitudes, which are answers to questions about support for democracy, capitalism, reform of the current system, as well as various measures of pro-sociality. The second set pertains to historical knowledge, which are answers to open-ended questions about participants’ views on different historical issues, as well as the historical sources from which participants learned the information they report.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will answer questions about their views and attitudes on various political issues before or after answering open-ended questions about the history of the United States.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization will be stratified by race-party, ensuring that 50% of African American respondents, 50% of white conservative respondents, and 50% of white non-conservative respondents answer questions about their political attitudes after answering questions about their historical views. The randomization will be implemented using Qualtrics.
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit will be the individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
1600
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1600
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 for the Protection of Human Subjects at Dartmouth
IRB Approval Date
2022-01-31
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00032438
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