Attitudes towards refugees and identity

Last registered on May 02, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Attitudes towards refugees and identity
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009791
Initial registration date
July 22, 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 26, 2022, 1:36 PM EDT

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

Last updated
May 02, 2023, 3:16 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Italy
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Cristina Cattaneo
Affiliation
RFF-CMCC and CMCC
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Daniela Grieco
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Mario Macis
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Nicola Lacetera
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-05-02
End date
2023-07-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
attitudes, refugess, identity
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Using data from an incentivised online survey with nationally representative Italians, we study natives’ attitudes towards refugees, some sharing a common European identity and some not sharing it, being from outside Europe. The project has three objectives. First, we aim to test if the way the asylum seekers are managed and relocated between the different European countries, affects the attitude towards refugees. To this aim, we prime a reform of the EU refugee legislative framework, which sets more equal allocation rules among member states. Second, we aim to test if the way respondents react to the prime depends on the nationality of the refugees. We vary the cultural/ racial distances of the refugees compared to natives. Third, we test if identity concerns affect the level of trust in refugees of different nationalities. We measure attitudes through real donations in favor of the different groups of refugees, and we proxy the degree of trust towards the groups through a choice over the composition of the donation, between in-kind and cash transfers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cattaneo, Cristina et al. 2023. "Attitudes towards refugees and identity." AEA RCT Registry. May 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9791-2.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-20
Intervention End Date
2022-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We will collect donations in favor of two distinct groups of refugees hosted in Italy. One group comprises Ukrainian refugees, who should be perceived close in terms of (European) identity. The other group comprises African refugees, who are likely to be perceived as distant from Europeans in terms of culture and religion. In the control condition, we collect donation in favour of natives victims of violence. We will also collect information of the composition of the donation, between in-kind and cash transfers.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We design four treatments plus a control group. We vary the nationality of the victims of violence primed in the treatments (and therefore the beneficiaries of the donation), and whether respondents are assigned to read a text on a reform of the EU refugee legislative framework, which sets more equal allocation rules among member states. In the control condition (T0), we recall that Italian citizens can be victims of violence and deprivation and ask to donate in favor of them. The first treatment (T1) recalls that many Ukrainians are victims of violence and asks respondents to donate in favor of Ukraine refugees hosted outside Ukraine. The second treatment (T2) is identical to treatment T1 but also primes a possible reform of the EU legislative framework that employs burden-sharing rules rather than the first-country-of-entry’ rule. The third treatment (T3) recalls that many Africans are victims of violence and asks respondents to donate in favor of African refugees hosted in Italy. The fourth treatment (T4) is identical to treatment T3 but also primes the reform of the EU legislative framework.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Qualtrics randomizer feature.
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters are involved
Sample size: planned number of observations
5000 individuals in the main survey plus 600 in the pilot
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1'000 in each condition.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee of the University of Milan
IRB Approval Date
2022-05-30
IRB Approval Number
51/22
IRB Name
Ethics Committee of the University of Toronto
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-07
IRB Approval Number
43028
IRB Name
Ethics Committee of the Johns Hopkins University
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-14
IRB Approval Number
HIRB00015374
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

pap_November_2022.pdf

MD5: 1bc40611c35e7b03b78e9e9f0937215a

SHA1: 390b8ebe7eeec21badf3e5bb3e19bd508456cbe2

Uploaded At: November 24, 2022

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