An online experiment on attitudes towards temporary protection of refugees and helping behaviors in the EU

Last registered on July 12, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

An online experiment on attitudes towards temporary protection of refugees and helping behaviors in the EU

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009682

Initial registration date

July 11, 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

July 12, 2022, 10:43 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Belgium

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Andrea Blasco

Affiliation

European Commission's JRC

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Michal Krawczyk

PI Affiliation

European Commission's JRC

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-08-01

End date

2022-09-30

Keywords

Behavior

Additional Keywords

Immigration, refugees

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

In February 2022, millions of Ukrainians fled their country after Russia’s invasion producing the fastest mass migration to Europe in decades. The European Council responded by adopting extraordinary temporary protection measures to assist the incoming people (“refugees”). But what are the Europeans’ attitudes towards temporary protection in general and for specific demographic groups? We evaluate how these attitudes vary with the demographic traits of the people displaced, reasons why they had to leave their country, and the rights covered under temporary protection (e.g., housing, labor market). We also evaluate the extent to which individuals can be persuaded to adopt more inclusionary attitudes towards refugees by being stimulated to take the perspective of a refugee (i.e., consider how he or she may think or feel about the situation) or by considering narratives that give a refugee’s perspective. Results may contribute to better social marketing communication to ease tensions associated with immigration. They may also inform preparedness programs for future refugee crises, especially in terms of preferable returns, integration, and relocation policies and how to activate these policy levers during a crisis.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Blasco, Andrea and Michal Krawczyk. 2022. "An online experiment on attitudes towards temporary protection of refugees and helping behaviors in the EU." AEA RCT Registry. July 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9682-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2022-08-01

Intervention End Date

2022-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

We consider the following questions as outcome measures:
• To measure individual preferences towards refugees and support for temporary protection, we ask to choose between one or none hypothetical refugee situations in a choice experiment (“Please, compare groups A and B described in the table and indicate which of the two, if any, you would prefer to offer temporary protection in the EU.”). We repeat the question six times under different scenarios (see later).
• To measure support for protection to Ukrainian people in the current situation we ask whether they agree or not with granting temporary work permits to Ukrainians (“Do you agree or disagree with granting displaced people from Ukraine temporary work permits?”)
• We also aks whether they are willing to send a short text supporting Ukrainian refugees (encouraging volunteering, making donations, or raising awareness) to be shared via Twitter (“Would you agree to write a short text to persuade people in [Country] to donate? We will share your message on our Twitter account (You can also edit our template)”).
• To measure support to policies already in place, we ask whether they support the European Council’s decision to grant temporary protection to the Ukrainians (“do you support or do you oppose this decision?”) and whether the EU should extend it beyond the first year (“Assuming the situation in Ukraine does not change much, do you think the EU should extend the temporary protection for Ukrainian people beyond March 23, 2023?”)
• We also measure individual support for Ukraine to join the EU (“To what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement: ‘Ukraine is part of the EU family’”?).
• We ask about what rights (housing, labor market, medical, …) they would like to include in temporary protection.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We can divide our survey into four sequential sections: 1. demographic questions for screening (these are used to reach certain fixed quotas for country representativeness), 2. (conjoint) choice experiment, 3. perspective-taking experiment, and 4. collection of pre-treatment variables.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

The randomization is done automatically by the software that collectes the responses. All treatment assignments are stratified by country. Quotas are enforced to ensure country representativeness of the sample.

Randomization Unit

individual respondent level

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We will survey the general population 18+ of six countries: Czechia, France, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Romania. We will draw about 2,100 respondents per country and 3,500 for Poland.

Sample size: planned number of observations

14,000

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

6 countries

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB