Ethnic Prejudice in SMS Donations: Measuring Behavioral Change toward the Roma

• In Event: Experimental Studies of Racial and Ethnic Prejudice

Abstract

While ethnic prejudice is widespread, experimental approaches to measuring and redressing it are underdeveloped. Most commonly, survey questions gauge respondents’ prejudice toward a group through questions about how comfortable they are working, marrying, or residing next to people of other ethnicities (Berry and Kalin 1995; Parkin and Mendelsohn 2003). However, these questions might not actually correspond to behaviors of interest (Fiske and North 2014). Our experimental design bypasses this central challenge to the measurement of ethnic prejudice. To improve upon the current methodology, we use a novel text-messaging approach to study ethnic prejudice and ways to redress it. We focus our research on prejudice against the Roma, as this community has suffered longstanding discrimination across Europe, and integration solutions are actively being investigated. Partnering with a Greek NGO, we contacted approximately 48,000 people to solicit donations to their free lunch program. We found that respondents randomly assigned to donate to a Roma child were half as likely to make a donation as respondents randomly assigned to donate to a Greek child. We also found that the language of human rights, which has been shown to shape attitudinal measures, did not produce significant donation changes in this behavioral study.

Authors

• Katerina Linos, University of California, Berkeley

• Laura Jakli, UC Berkeley

• Melissa Anne Carlson, University of California, Berkeley