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Attitudes towards refugees and identity

Last registered on July 26, 2022
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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.

Locations

Country
Italy
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Cristina Cattaneo
Affiliation
RFF-CMCC and CMCC
Contact Primary Investigator

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 plan to test if priming the refugee status of populations with different cultural and racial distances from Italians (Ukrainians versus Syrians), affects the attitudes towards the specific primed group. Second, we plan to test if the arrival of a new group of refugees, who share the European identity and are culturally closer to Italians, changes how previous groups of refugees, who are culturally more distant (i.e. Syrians), are perceived and identified. Third, we aim to test if identity concerns and different attitudes towards the groups of refugees affect the trust towards the specific group of refugees. 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. 2022. "Attitudes towards refugees and identity." AEA RCT Registry. July 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9791-1.0
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 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 Syrian refugees, who are likely to be perceived as distant from Europeans in terms of culture and religion. 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 the beneficiaries of the donation. We use as control condition Italian women victim of violence (T0). The first treatment (T1) recalls the Ukraine situation and asks respondents to donate in favor of Ukraine female refugees hosted outside Ukraine. The second treatment (T2) recalls the Syrian situation and asks respondents to donate in favor of Syrian female refugees hosted outside Syria. The third treatment (T3) recalls some general information about refugees of all nationalities and asks respondents to donate in favor of Ukrainian women refugees hosted outside Ukraine. The fourth treatment (T4) recalls some general information about refugees of all nationalities and asks respondents to donate in favor of Syrian women refugees hosted outside Syria.
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 500 in the pilot
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1250 in the control condition (T0); 1250 in T1 and T2; 625 in T3 and T4
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_Attitudes towards refugees and identity

MD5: c607e0bdab11843be823d772e1bfcc0a

SHA1: f2474e8544505cd741ee652b29d4343ec8e898c9

Uploaded At: July 22, 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