Pre-Analysis Plan for "Smooth-talking strangers: The political consequences of the ease of communicating, selection effects, and intergroup experiences"

This pre-analysis registration is for an experimental study that has two waves, conducted with a sample of white, American adults (N~640). The first wave gathers basic demographic measures as well as individuals' willingness to engage with an outrace partner. The second wave administers the key treatment, which is a virtual experience with an outrace individual via video. This treatment is block randomized according to subjects' willingness to interact with an outrace partner in wave 1. The study tests the idea that outgroup members who are easy-to-understand defy subjects' expectations about groups, increase feelings of intergroup threat and anxiety, and prompt lower levels of political support for that outgroup. Further, it explores heterogeneous effects by subjects' willingness to engage with outgroups, as measured before the treatment. This pre-analysis plan was registered prior to the administration of the treatments and the analyses of the data. Wave 1, which measured important subject characteristics, had already been conducted prior to the posting of this plan.