AEA RCT Registry currently lists 8515 studies with locations in 167 countries.
Affect labelling, the process of putting feelings into words, has been shown to have a calming effect on the brain. This study examines the impact of affect labelling on political polarization over Covid-mitigation measures, an emotionally-charged topic that led to large differences of opinion. We conducted an online experiment in which participants in a treatment group, randomly assigned, underwent a questionnaire to label their feelings before reporting their opinions. We found that affect labeling reduced polarization for young individuals, up to the age of 29, a demographic characterized by intense emotional responses due to increased activity in the amygdala, the region of the brain whose activity is reduced by affect labeling.
This project aims to collaborate with Ministry of Health in the Republic of Moldova with the goals of harnessing behavioral insights to design and test innovative solutions to local public health challenges. We will be focusing in particular on smoking cessation and awareness on stroke symptoms. The survey aims to generate findings to support digital health solution to help smokers overcome barriers to quit. We will leverage techniques like precommitment, planning for obstacles, and feedback on short-term health improvements when not smoking. To understand take up of such a service, the survey experiment aims to study what the most effective messaging strategy is. We change the framing of the sign up message one a general one and a reserved spot message for treatment. The survey will...
This project studies U.S. liberals' demand for social media censorship.
A surprisingly large share of the population believes in zodiac signs and their significance regarding individuals’ personality traits, despite there being no scientific evidence in favour of a relationship between zodiac signs and personality traits. Existing studies, however, often suffer from small and non-representative samples, which may undermine their conclusions. In this paper, we re-visit the question of whether zodiac signs predict personality traits using the German Socio-Economic Panel, which provides representative data for the German population. Having access to the exact date of birth, we can compute zodiac signs and compare Big 5 personality traits across zodiac signs. Our findings indicate that, indeed, personality traits do differ between zodiac signs. However, differe...
This study tests the effectiveness of an informational intervention on young Tunisian adults' attitudes towards organ donation and their willingness to register as deceased organ donors. The study is being conducted in collaboration with the Tunisian Center for the Promotion of Organ Transplantation (CNPTO). We will randomly assign classrooms of undergraduate students to a treatment and control condition. The treatment classes will be visited by a representative of the CNPTO who will explain the medical and social significance of organ donation. She will also explain that Islam endorses organ donation as an act of generosity towards others. We will assess the effectiveness of this informational intervention on a set of outcomes which are self-reported by the studentsin an online survey:...
In many settings male students outperform females in mathematics, and furthermore, there appear to be a systematic difference in the way males and females approach mathematics tasks. This may be due to student factors (e.g. differences in preferences, personality, or ability) or teacher factors (e.g. gender stereotypes or didactic approaches). We focus on the role of teachers in fostering this gender gap. We carry out a conjoint experiment testing whether mathematics teachers believe that—all else being equal—male students benefit more from certain didactic approaches compared to females, and if such biases can be explained by teachers’ gender stereotypes or didactic approaches.
Effective interventions are needed to promote more sustainable and healthier food choices for both human and planetary health. This study will evaluate two interventions in two independent adaptive design randomised controlled trials (one 2-arm and one 3-arm trial) within the same study population (a factorial design is not powered). The interventions are (i) eco-labelling, which will provide participants with information on the environmental impact of their food purchases using a score ranging from A (most sustainable) to G (least sustainable); and (ii) price discounts on alternative products with a better sustainability profile (and equal or better nutritional profile) in place of specific products in their basket. To implement these interventions, we will use a browser extension on o...
In our previous experiment (Chen and Guan, 2021), we find a significant detrimental effect of auditory descriptions on economic rationality relative to visual descriptions. This disparity may stem from the tendency of individuals to process auditory information sequentially, as opposed to the simultaneous processing of visual information. In this follow-up experiment, we investigate this potential underlying mechanism by prompting subjects to process auditory and visual information sequentially in a tightly controlled setting. By comparing the economic rationality of the two new treatments, we aim to determine the driving mechanism affecting economic rationality when information is presented either visually or auditorily. If the experiment finds no significant differences between the Vi...
In this study, we examine the impact of the flipped classroom against standard class on learning outcomes of students of an introductory economics course offered in the Spring semester of 2022. The experiments of the flipped classroom is conducted in the two sections of the introductory economics course, where the students are randomly assigned to the two sections by the administration office of the economics department.
I study the effect of how players in a board game generate their rolls on subjects' beliefs of certain players' winning probabilities in a board game. In particular, it is varied whether players use a tablet computer vs. whether they use a physical die and a dice shuffler to generate their die rolls. The study is implemented as an RCT laboratory experiment. See also the attached pre-analysis plan.