Racial Discrimination in Seeking Advice (update)

This is a follow-up study to AEARCTR-0005812. We design an online experiment to study racial discrimination in seeking advice. In round 1 of the experimental design, subjects face a real effort task that is difficult to solve without prior advice from an expert. We offer subjects the option to watch a tutorial before working on the task. The main treatment variation is the race of the advisor (black vs. white), signalled by the skin color of a hand appearing at the beginning of the tutorial. We vary the skin color of a given hand model using video post-production techniques. This allows us to keep all features of the hand other than skin color constant between treatment arms. In round 1, we analyze how subjects’ willingness to pay for advice depends on the race of the advisor, and how the race of the advisor affects advice utilization. In round 2, subjects watch another tutorial containing advice about a different strategy to solve the real effort task. To elicit preferences, we let subjects choose between two different advisors. Using an information treatment stating that the content of both tutorials is identical, we identify the extent of taste-based discrimination in seeking advice. In addition to studying discrimination in the full sample of experimental subjects, we also study subsamples of individuals who have been classified as very conservative, very liberal, or non extreme.