Personal and Collective Aspirations Interventions to Advance Household Economic Mobility and Community-Level Inclusive Growth
The project: This project is part of a larger, 20-year study on the impact of personal aspiration exercises on household economic mobility. The project seeks to understand whether educating a community about factors outside of personal choices helps change attitudes toward inequality and anti-poverty programs in the Philippines.
The process: This randomized controlled trial will involve approximately 5,924 women in rural areas in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Each intervention presents a brief film of a female entrepreneurial role model followed by a 3-hour small group discussion, both of which seek to build either 1) personal aspirations and agency or 2) personal plus collective aspirations and personal and collective agency. The project seeks to understand if both interventions will promote economic mobility, with the latter also promoting inclusive growth and social capital.
Catherine Thomas, Psychology and Organizational Studies, U-M