Factorial Survey Experiment Research Articles

They do what they must: caseworkers at the public employment service in Vienna

PurposeConcerning the decision-making of frontline bureaucrats, research has suggested that caseworkers take into account a broader range of legal, organisational, professional and personal aspects. Their decision-making can offset social rights, when it neglects policy goals, but it can support social rights if the decisions consider clients' perspective.Design/methodology/approachBased on a factorial survey experiment with 197 Viennese caseworkers of the employment service, the caseworkers were asked how likely they would be to refer nine different typical clients to the introductory session for the programme “Women into Technical and Craft Professions”, whereby different dimensions were altered to grasp regulations and clients' perspective.FindingsIn the multilevel analysis, the interest of the clients in a technical-educational programme demonstrates the strongest positive effect, which complies with the programme's political intention. Other pertinent criteria may support clients' interests and the organizational performance goals, but neglect clients' position, when they counteract performance goals. Primarily, caseworkers do what they must and follow mandatory and performance criteria.Research limitations/implicationsOn the caseworker's level, further research should aim to reach larger samples. Furthermore, the impact of performance goals on caseworker's decision making has to regard different professional groups beside personnel and labour market experts.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that a focus on the micro-level is needed to evaluate the impact of social policies. The practitioner's position is crucial to juggling legal goals and client's need.Social implicationsPerformance goals ought to better reflect social rights on a broader scale.Originality/valueThis article provides new evidence on the level of discretion caseworkers execute.

The perceived fair duration of unemployment benefits for older workers. The role of lifetime achievements in the labour market

AbstractThe welfare state regulates social policies and reallocates scarce resources. For the social legitimacy of the welfare state, it is important that the public supports the principles underlying this reallocation. This article examines the impact of different activities during the life course on public deservingness perceptions of older unemployed people. In a factorial survey experiment conducted among a random sample of individuals drawn from German administrative employment records, we examine the maximum duration of benefit receipt which is perceived as fair for older unemployed persons with different biographies. The results indicate strong public support for a nexus between previous contributions and benefit entitlements. Besides financial contributions to unemployment insurance, parenting and further training are considered to be ‘lifetime achievements’ which justify longer unemployment benefit receipt. We interpret these findings as an expression of a generalised form of reciprocity which guides perceptions of deservingness regarding older unemployed persons.

Fairness perceptions regarding in-work benefits: a survey experiment

PurposeIn many countries, individuals can receive welfare support whilst simultaneously being employed. The level of earned income that welfare recipients are allowed to keep has long been a subject of debate. Core issues include whether in-work benefit regulations provide incentives for individuals to expand labour market participation and are thus also socially effective and whether the population perceives welfare benefits for individuals who earn own income as fair. This article contributes to the debate about the social legitimacy of in-work benefit regulations by shedding light on the principles guiding judgements about an adequate amount of in-work benefit receipt.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a factorial survey experiment to investigate which factors guide judgements about an adequate level of in-work benefit receipt. In the authors' factorial survey, the household composition, health status, and monthly earnings of a hypothetical in-work benefit recipient were varied experimentally. The study investigates Germany's basic income support programme, a means-tested social policy programme that targets both unemployed and employed individuals.FindingsThe results show that respondents consider higher earnings retention rates for lower-income earners to be fair. This preference mirrors the German legislation, which is based on the principle of need. Furthermore, the presence of children and of physical as well as mental health impairments are associated with support for higher earnings retention rates.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that citizens support the core features of in-work benefit regulations but do not consider in-work benefit recipients as a homogenous group when assessing the adequate level of benefit receipt.

Motivating consumer-to-business smartphone returns: Evidence from a factorial survey experiment

In light of short replacement cycles and low recycling rates of smartphones, establishing effective return mechanisms for unused smartphones is crucial to prolong product use phases and thereby reduce the environmental impact of smartphones. Consumer-to-business return options provide a novel, accessible way to return unused devices but require consumer acceptance to fulfill their ecological potential. However, thus far, disposition is a largely understudied aspect of consumer behavior. We address the need for research on disposition behavior and smartphone returns by examining influences on consumers' intentions to use consumer-to-business return options for smartphones in a factorial survey experiment with 1192 smartphone users in Germany. We find that environmental awareness and price consciousness are both associated with higher return intentions. Although financial rewards are generally preferred to non-financial rewards, non-financial rewards gain popularity among environmentally aware consumers and when lower financial rewards are offered. Neither marketing smartphone returns with different appeal types nor linking the smartphone return to purchasing a replacement device influence participants' return intentions. In contrast, return mechanisms and device condition do significantly affect return intentions in our experiment. We discuss our findings’ implications for practitioners offering consumer-to-business return options and formulate practical recommendations, in particular regarding the use of non-financial rewards, the integration of return and refurbishing services, and potential benefits of physical drop-off stations.

Exploring job resources as predictors of employees' effective coping with job stress

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the relative impact of the various workplace resources on employees' effective coping with job stress symptoms, taking into account synergistic and antagonistic effects. The authors used job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as an overarching theoretical framework to test the hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a factorial survey experiment and a within-person design. Data were obtained from a random sample of 97 Greek employees working in public and private organizations. Multilevel modeling regression techniques were used for data analyses. The authors examined the relative effect of various job resources at different levels on employees' ratings of effective coping with job stress symptoms. In parallel, the authors investigated the possible synergistic and antagonistic interactions between the specific job resources.FindingsThe authors found that managers' leadership and humor style, their relationship with subordinates and coworkers’ support had positive effects on employees' coping with job stress. In addition, the authors found that the manager's leadership style interacts with manager–subordinate relationship quality and coworkers’ support as well as the latter interacts with the manager's humor style and manager–subordinate relationship quality. The study model explained 50% of the variance in effective coping with stress ratings.Originality/valueThe study highlights the importance of workplace resources as contextual variables, for the effective coping with stress symptoms at work. It highlights that a combination of workplace resources produces a net effect that was better than would have been expected based solely on the individual performance of these job resources. As such, the research answer calls to attend to the effects of synergistic effects of workplace resources on effective coping with stress symptoms at work.

Statistical modelling of vignette data in psychology.

Vignette methods are widely used in psychology and the social sciences to obtain responses to multi-dimensional scenarios or situations. Where quantitative data are collected this presents challenges to the selection of an appropriate statistical model. This depends on subtle details of the design and allocation of vignettes to participants. A key distinction is between factorial survey experiments where each participant receives a different allocation of vignettes from the full universe of possible vignettes and experimental vignette studies where this restriction is relaxed. The former leads to nested designs with a single random factor and the latter to designs with two crossed random factors. In addition, the allocation of vignettes to participants may lead to fractional or unbalanced designs and a consequent loss of efficiency or aliasing of the effects of interest. Many vignette studies (including some factorial survey experiments) include unmodeled heterogeneity between vignettes leading to potentially serious problems if traditional regression approaches are adopted. These issues are reviewed and recommendations are made for the efficient design of vignette studies including the allocation of vignettes to participants. Multilevel models are proposed as a general approach to handling nested and crossed designs including unbalanced and fractional designs. This is illustrated with a small vignette data set looking at judgements of online and offline bullying and harassment.

Ideology, Legitimation and Collective Action: Evidence from Chile on the Mechanism of Ideological Inversion

Abstract We present evidence on a social mechanism of legitimation—ideological inversion—proposing that a fantasy consensus deters collective actions oriented toward social change, even in contexts were individuals support transformations. This fantasy consensus emerges as individuals infer the order’s validity mainly from the practices of others, which are largely constrained by social structures. Relying on a factorial survey experiment conducted in Chile, our results support the two main hypotheses from ideological inversion: people systematically overestimate the support for the status quo, and this overestimation has a deterrent effect on collective actions oriented toward social change. We argue that ideological inversion helps explain how legitimation crises often remain hidden, and therefore how political crisis often emerge abruptly. For instance, before the revolt of 2019 Chile was perceived as an example of social stability within Latin America, yet after an ordinary subway fare hike the country erupted in an unrelenting and massive wave of protests. Our findings suggest that the social support for the status quo previously perceived in Chile was a fantasy consensus enforced by constrained practices, and that this fantasy was very effective until recently in deterring social change. Ideological inversion thus provides a mechanism that contributes to explain the stability of social structures and inequalities regardless of individual dispositions or shared norms.

Which Duration of Unemployment Benefits is Perceived as Being Just for Which Groups? Results from a Factorial Survey Experiment in Germany

Welfare states allocate and redistribute resources across different groups. For the social legitimacy of welfare states, public support of redistributive processes and outcomes is crucial. An important aspect in this context is the deservingness or non-deservingness of benefit recipients from the perspective of those who both financially contribute to the system and potentially benefit from it. We invited a random sample of the German labour force to participate in an online-survey. Using a factorial survey experiment, we described fictitious unemployed persons with different attributes and asked survey participants on the just maximum benefit duration for each particular case. Judgements regarding just benefit durations vary along the criteria of reciprocity, control, attitude and need: Respondents grant longer unemployment benefits to older jobseekers, as well as to jobseekers who became involuntarily unemployed, had stable employment careers, have to care for the elderly or are sole earners in the household.

Assessing the Deinstitutionalization of Marriage Thesis: An Experimental Test

This article seeks to experimentally evaluate the thesis that marriage is deinstitutionalized in the United States. To do so, we map the character of the norm about whether different-sex couples ought to marry, and we identify the extent to which the norm is strong or weak along four dimensions: polarity, whether the norm is prescriptive, proscriptive, bipolar (both prescriptive and proscriptive), or nonexistent; conditionality, whether the norm holds under all circumstances; intensity, the degree to which individuals subscribe to the norm; and consensus, the extent to which individuals share the norm. Results of a factorial survey experiment administered to a disproportionate stratified random sample of U.S. adults ( N = 1,823) indicate that the norm to marry is weak: it is largely bipolar, conditional, and of low-to-moderate intensity, with disagreement over the norm as well as the circumstances demarcating the norm. While the norm to marry is different for men and women and for Black and White respondents, the amount of disagreement (or lack of consensus) within groups is comparable between groups. We find no significant differences across socioeconomic status (education, income, and occupational class). Overall, our findings support key claims of the deinstitutionalization of marriage thesis.

What Have We Learned about Gender from Candidate Choice Experiments? A Meta-Analysis of Sixty-Seven Factorial Survey Experiments

Candidate choice survey experiments in the form of conjoint or vignette experiments have become a standard part of the political science toolkit for understanding the effects of candidate characteristics on vote choice. We collect 67 such studies from all over the world and reanalyze them using a standardized approach. We find that the average effect of being a woman (relative to a man) is a gain of approximately 2 percentage points. We find some evidence of heterogeneity across contexts, candidates, and respondents. The difference is somewhat larger for white (vs. black) candidates and among survey respondents who are women (vs. men) or, in the US context, identify as Democrats or Independents (vs. Republicans). Our results add to the growing body of experimental and observational evidence that voter preferences are not a major factor explaining the persistently low rates of women in elected office.

Factorial Survey Experiments in the Sociology of Education. Potentials, Pitfalls, Evaluation

Abstract The potentials and pitfalls of factorial survey experiments (FSE) are discussed for empirical tests of theoretical explanations in the sociology of education. The possibilities and limits of FSE are outlined in relation to the internal validity, construct validity, and external validity of the obtained results and illustrated using an example experiment on the decision of university students to study abroad. It is demonstrated that FSE are an enriching complement to laboratory and field experiments, and observational studies.

Discrimination at the Crossroads? Evidence from a Factorial Survey Experiment on Teacher‘s Tracking Decisions

Abstract Using a factorial survey experiment, we investigate whether teachers discriminate against lower class and minority children. The vignettes include information on the pupil’s gender, social and ethnic origin, academic potential, motivation, behaviour in class as well as parental educational aspirations. While the discrimination hypotheses are not supported, we find gender-specific effects of challenging behaviour, to the disadvantage of girls. Both the usefulness as well as potential pitfalls of the factorial survey approach are discussed.

Disentangling the Attractiveness of Telework to Employees: A Factorial Survey Experiment

Disentangling the Attractiveness of Telework to Employees: A Factorial Survey Experiment

The Norm of Wage Negotiations in the United States

The moral economy is a set of institutionalized rules, norms, and values that guide action in market economies. Historically, the norm of wage negotiations has been a central pillar of the U.S. moral economy, but research suggests that this may be changing. In the present study, the authors seek to evaluate whether the norm of wage negotiations is decoupled from the U.S. moral economy. Results of a factorial survey experiment administered to a quota sample of U.S. adults ( N = 707) indicate that the norm of wage negotiations is weak: it is largely bipolar, conditional, and of a low to moderate intensity, with disagreement over the norm as well as the circumstances demarcating the norm. These social cleavages, however, do not fall along demographic lines: the character of the norm is comparable across groups. These findings reveal that there has been an erosion of the distributional norms underlying the U.S. moral economy.

Muslim bias or fear of fundamentalism? A survey experiment in five Western European democracies

Several studies have shown that attitudes toward immigrants to Europe are marked by a Muslim bias. More recently, Helbling and Traunmüller (2020) have suggested that this Muslim bias is in fact driven by a religiosity bias and thus that the strength of migrant’ religiosity has a bigger effect on attitudes towards them than their nominal faith. The aim of this paper is to replicate and expand Helbling and Traunmüller with a fresh full factorial survey experiment, fielded in 2016/17. We go beyond the limitations of Helbling and Traunmüller, who study the effects of nominal faith, religiosity, and Nigerian as well as Bulgarian immigrants in Great Britain, by including Austria, Germany, France, and Switzerland to rule out idiosyncratic context effects. Moreover, we distinguish between labor migrants and refugees and include Syrian origin. For different groups of migrants in all five countries, our results confirm that the Muslim bias is mainly driven by the degree of migrants’ and refugees’ religiosity: secular and devout Muslims are viewed more positively than both Muslim and Christian fundamentalists.

Multiple categorization and intergroup bias: Examining the generalizability of three theories of intergroup relations.

Research on intergroup bias usually focuses on a single dimension of social categorization. In real life, however, people are aware of others' multiple group memberships and use this information to form attitudes about them. The present research tests the predictive power of identification, perceived conflict, and perceived symbolic threat in explaining the strength of intergroup bias on various dimensions of social categorization in multiple categorization settings. We conduct a factorial survey experiment, manipulating 9 dimensions of social categorization in diverse samples from 4 countries (n = 12,810 observations, 1,281 participants representing 103 social groups). The dimensions studied are age, gender, ethnicity, religion, place of residence, education, occupation, income, and 1 country-specific dimension. This approach allows exploring the generalizability of established determinants of bias across dimensions of categorization, contexts, and target groups. Identification and symbolic threat showed good generalizability across countries and categorization dimensions, but their effects varied as a function of participant and target groups' status. Identification predicted stronger bias mainly when the participant belonged to a higher status and the target belonged to a lower status group. Symbolic threat predicted stronger bias mainly when the target was a minority group member. Conflict predicted bias only in few cases, and not only the strength but also the direction of the effects varied across countries, dimensions, and target and participant groups. These findings help to clarify the limits of generalizability of established determinants of intergroup bias and highlight the need for new explanations of social-cognitive processes among minority group members. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Don't send us your waste gases: Public attitudes toward international carbon dioxide transportation and storage in Europe

Large-scale deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is part of the pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C and yet, negative public perceptions of CCS have challenged the realization of several projects in Europe over the last decade. This study is the first to look at the effect of exporting or importing CO2 on public perceptions. We conducted a fractional factorial survey experiment in Germany and Norway varying the nationality of the CO2 source and of the storage site of a hypothetical CCS project. We find that respondents from both countries do not evaluate offshore and onshore storage differently but otherwise we find substantial differences between countries. Norwegian respondents react to the experimental manipulation: despite an overall more positive attitude toward CCS, they evaluate a project where foreign sourced CO2 is stored in Norway substantially more negatively compared to a project where domestically sourced CO2 is stored in Norway. By contrast, German respondents are not affected by the variation of the nationality of emissions or the storage site. We connect this finding to construal level theory, arguing that Germans are more psychologically distanced from CCS than Norwegians due to differences in general familiarity with CCS and the political support for CCS; this makes them less sensitive to our experimental manipulation. The uncovered decrease in public support for CCS when CO2 is exported from Germany to Norway challenges the feasibility of the current plans of Northern European states for a CO2 transport and storage infrastructure.

Hiring discrimination against foreigners in multi-ethnic labour markets: Does recruiter nationality matter? Evidence from a factorial survey experiment in Luxembourg

A bulk of experimental research has pointed to ethnic hiring discrimination as a key driver of social inequalities in multi-ethnic labour markets. However, the role of recruiter nationality as a possible moderator of ethnic hiring discrimination has been widely neglected. Against this background, this study examines the role of recruiter nationality in hiring discrimination involving foreign applicants. I used data from a recent factorial survey experiment conducted with real recruiters in Luxembourg (N = 677 from 113 recruiters). Respondents rated six experimentally manipulated profiles of fictitious applicants for jobs in different occupational fields. Luxembourg is a relevant case due to its multi-ethnic workforce at various levels of the vertical strata of labour market positions, which allows to test the role of ethnic homophily in hiring decisions. The results suggested that foreign recruiters discriminate less against foreign applicants than native recruiters do. Furthermore, the effect of being a foreign applicant was more negative if the applicant’s nationality matched the recruiter’s nationality. However, none of the observed differences in effects were statistically significant. Elucidating how both native and non-native recruiters make hiring decisions based on applicants’ nationality contributes to a better understanding of how social inequalities emerge and intensify in multi-ethnic labour markets.

Dumpster Diving for a Better World

Food waste is a major challenge in affluent societies around the globe. Based on theories of protest and a mixed methods design combining qualitative, experimental, and survey research, we study the motives for, frequency of, and public support for dumpster diving in Germany. We find that dumpster diving as an unconventional daily protest action is related to more general protest against capitalist societies. It is motivated by both altruistic and egoistic concerns. The perceived legitimacy of violence and self-identity explain the frequency of dumpster diving. A factorial survey experiment with activists and the general public reveals strong similarities between the views of activists and those of other citizens in strong support of dumpster diving. This study demonstrates the usefulness of combining different empirical methods to study food activism.

Gender differences and similarities in work preferences: Results from a factorial survey experiment

Despite increased gender equality in many arenas in most of the Western world, women and men continue to choose different educational paths; this is one reason for the persistent gender segregation in the labour market. Cultural and economic explanations for occupational gender segregation both contend that gendered career choices reflect gendered preferences. By analysing data from a multifactorial survey experiment conducted in Norway, designed to isolate the preferences for occupations from preferences for job attributes with which occupation is often correlated: pay; type of position; and amount of work, this article examines whether and to what extent boys and girls who have not yet entered the labour market have different preferences for different work dimensions. The study shows some gender differences in occupational preferences, while also demonstrating similarities in boys’ and girls’ preferences for work dimensions, such as pay and working hours. This indicates that attributes tested by the experiment, which are typically associated with gendered occupations, cannot independently explain why boys and girls tend to have divergent occupational preferences. Importantly, however, the results suggest that boys’ reluctance to undertake some female-typed occupations might be reduced if they did not pay less than male-typed occupations requiring the same level of education.