In an online experiment with a representative US sample (N=12,960) we show that increasing the salience of an economic or cultural conflict without providing any news boosts disagreement on a range of political issues by 8-35%. The data support two key predictions of the Bonomi et al. (2021)...

This paper reports results from a preregistered survey experiment (ca. 2000) designed to test the connection between economic worries and individual attitudes toward migration and universalism. The experiment was conducted in Germany in February 2025, prior to the general elections, at a time...

The Country Opinion Survey in Grenada assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Grenada perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector,...

We examine how individuals update their views on climate change when exposed to competing advocacy or skeptical signals on social media. In a representative survey experiment of 1,633 adults in Italy, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) exposure to climate-advocacy...

Gender quotas remain controversial despite evidence of their effectiveness in reducing labor-market gender inequality. We study how informational narratives about quotas affect support, and how effects depend on pre-existing causal beliefs about inequality. In a pre-registered survey experiment...

We study how adolescents' second-order beliefs about their parents' occupational preferences shape gendered career aspirations. In a consequential early-career choice setting, we combine a parental choice experiment with a randomized salience intervention among students. Parents give gendered...

We study opinion dynamics in a social network consisting of two groups. Agents update their opinions by conforming to members of their own group while rejecting the views of the opposing group (affective polarization), and by listening to a media outlet that may provide biased information. We...

We document systematic parental under-reporting of children's socio-emotional difficulties relative to children's self-reports, using representative data from Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and Australia. To study the origins of this discrepancy, we develop a simple theoretical framework...

The Country Opinion Survey in Guatemala assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Guatemala perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private...

The Country Opinion Survey in Madagascar assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Madagascar perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private...

The Country Opinion Survey in Angola assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Angola perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and...

This paper is the first to examine how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) influence the support for income redistribution in adulthood. Using data from the 2022-2024 wave of the Global Flourishing Study on over 160,000 individuals from 22 countries, we construct measures of ACEs based on...

The Country Opinion Survey in Togo assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Togo perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and...

The Country Opinion Survey in Benin assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how Benin stakeholders perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and...

In an election, protest voters signal their discontent with the party they traditionally support in different ways. This paper examines a specific form of protest voting in which voters choose an anti-mainstream party over their true first preference, the mainstream party, as a way to signal...

The Country Opinion Survey in Belize assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in better understanding how stakeholders in Belize perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and...

In July 2021, severe floods devastated parts of Germany, causing numerous casualties and extensive damage to property and infrastructure. As climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of such extreme weather events, understanding their social implications is crucial. Using...

Die Diskussion um die Einführung einer 4-Tage-Woche in Deutschland ist von kontroversen Ansichten geprägt: Die einen sehen sie als den Weg zu einer modernen und produktiveren Arbeitswelt, die anderen befürchten wirtschaftliche Nachteile und eine Verschärfung des Arbeitskräftemangels. Der...

This paper studies ecospirituality - spiritual views that people have about the natural world. First, utilizing folklore data from around 1,000 pre-industrial societies, we present the first comprehensive global measurement of ecospirituality. Our analysis reveals systematic cultural variation:...

Do citizens support policy instruments because they appreciate their effects or because they are convinced by their objectives? We administered a large-scale representative survey with randomised video treatments to test how different policy frames - time savings, health and environment - affect...

Despite growing attention being paid to the societal impacts of violent conflict, little is known about how exposure thereto shapes gender attitudes, particularly in Africa. This study addresses that gap by examining the relationship between exposure to violent conflict and attitudes toward...

This research aims to assess PARIM-II in providing the potential migrants with the necessary information to make informed decisions about their futures, potentially reducing irregular migration from Pakistan to the EU and other countries. The insights gained from the research aim to guide future...

We examine how perceptions about the costs of carbon pricing affect policy acceptance. Using a representative sample of the German population, we conduct experiments that provide randomly selected respondents with personalized information about their costs at the current carbon price or a higher...

Perceptions about students' responsibility for their success might have crucial implications for public approval of targeted financial support. Using a survey experiment among the German adult population, we find that information about the correlation of education outcomes and parental...

This study examines the pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors of individuals across different age groups. We compare young adults with older adults in an online experiment with German participants. We use an incentivized task - the Work for Environment Protection task (WEPT) - to measure...

Background: The UK aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050, with food production and consumption being major contributors to GHG emissions. Consequently, the unsustainable nature of current dietary patterns significantly drives environmental degradation and climate change....

This paper experimentally examines the interplay between focal points, beliefs, and distributional preferences. Contrary to common wisdom, there is no detectable evidence that equal splits act as salient focal points in distributional voting contexts. Participants mispredict others' preferences:...