CELGS PERIODIC SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES: Research on using role models to inspire marginalized groups in society

UEH College of Economics, Law and Government (CELG) continued to hold CELG Seminar at B1.1001 with the theme "Using role models to inspire marginalized groups: A cautionary tale". The speaker was Professor Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen, a leading scientist in development economics and a senior policy consultant for many countries around the world.

The meeting was attended by: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Markus Taussig - Rutgers University (USA); Dr. Le Van Chon; Dr. Tran Quang Van and MSc. Nguyen Thi Phuong Linh - Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Tat Thang, Dr. Ho Quoc Thong, Dr. Ho Hoang Anh, Dr. Nguyen Quang – UEH School of Economics; Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung – UEH School of Government and PhD candidates and graduate students of CELG.

The authors used role models which are success stories with different household-scale business models. These success stories were built into interventional tool videos. Households in the study were shown inspirational videos of success stories to promote economic activities with the expectation of increasing the income of ethnic minority households. The research sample was approximately 800 ethnic minority households in 3 Northern Provinces of Vietnam (Lao Cai, Lai Chau and Dien Bien). These households were divided into treatment groups and control groups. Within 7 months, the research team conducted a survey to collect data before and after the intervention, with the outcome variables being income, quantity of goods production activities. The contents of the videos in the three surveys were: (1) the ideal model is the ethnic minority in Vietnam, (2) the ideal model is the Kinh ethnic group, and (3) the placebo video (this group was invited to watch a lifestyle and food video - unrelated to the success stories).

Research results showed that: although the level of participation of households in both the pre- and post-intervention stages is very high, the inspirational video intervention with Kinh characters does not affect business activities or minority household income. The team also found the evidence for the impact of inspirational stories on ethnic minority characters. These households did not engage in commercial agricultural activities and switched to subsistence agriculture. The findings indicated that ideal or role models are unreliable and reduce trust and cause inspired ethnic minority participants to behave contrary to the message of the inspirational videos. In general, the research results raised some questions regarding the generalizability of the role model interventions in promoting commodity production and increasing household income of ethnic minorities in the North Vietnam.

Professor Finn Tarp’s presentation attracted the interest and the comments from the lecturers and fellows in attendance to further improve their research work. With the spirit of positive academic exchange, the first CELG seminar of 2023 was successfully held. We look forward to receiving the interest of participating researchers in the upcoming future.

More photos about the academic session: