Breaking Ground: Exploring the interaction of social tension and environmental activism

Last registered on January 30, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Breaking Ground: Exploring the interaction of social tension and environmental activism
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010868
Initial registration date
January 25, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 30, 2023, 1:47 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Kassel
PI Affiliation
University of Frankfurt

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-01-27
End date
2023-02-17
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This paper aims to examine the connections between climate change and social tension, and how they may affect individual climate policy acceptance and climate action. Specifically, we examine individual agreement with transport policy measures aimed at improving the sustainability of individualized passenger transport, and the collective action of lobbying for policy change, specifically writing an email to politicians expressing support or refusal for certain climate policies. To induce perceived social tension in a controlled manner in a large survey experiment including 3,000 participants. As loneliness, an emerging issue in Western societies can affect how people perceive social tension, we furthermore examine whether the effect of perceived social tension on policy agreement and lobbying for policy change is moderated by it.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Köbrich León, Anja, Alexander Langenkamp and Janosch Schobin. 2023. "Breaking Ground: Exploring the interaction of social tension and environmental activism." AEA RCT Registry. January 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10868-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Înducing social tension
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-27
Intervention End Date
2023-02-17

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
agreement with transport policy measures
willingness to engage in environmental activism: sending an email
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The considered part of the survey will be the previously mentioned information provision experiment. It will start with the announcement that in the following we ask for participants’ opinion on social tension. After this information, the respondents will be randomly assigned to a control and two different treatment groups i.e., ‘social conflict’ and ‘social cohesion’
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization by LimeSurvey
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3000 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1500 individuals by treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials