How relevant is information? Some experimental evidence

Last registered on March 21, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
How relevant is information? Some experimental evidence
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011125
Initial registration date
March 20, 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
March 21, 2023, 4:57 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Pedro Hemsley
Affiliation
UFRJ
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Marcio Firmo
PI Affiliation
PUC-Rio
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Vitor Onuki
PI Affiliation
UFRJ
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2020-10-27
End date
2020-10-28
Keywords
Behavior, Lab
Additional Keywords
fake news, fact checking, objective information, opinion formation
JEL code(s)
C91, D83, D91, L82
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This paper examines the role of objective information in opinion formation. While fact checking has been widely adopted as a tool to fight fake news, it remains unclear whether people actually use objective information to form their opinions, given that opinion formation may be influenced by a variety of factors. To investigate this, we conducted online experiments on three topics (gun violence, global warming, and Covid-19) to measure the impact of objective information on opinion formation. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group, with the former receiving objective information about the topic and the latter receiving none. Results indicate that objective information had a non-significant impact on opinion formation across all topics, which raises concerns about the effectiveness of using objective information to counter fake news. Additionally, we find a strong correlation between political position and opinion formation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Firmo, Marcio, Pedro Hemsley and Vitor Onuki. 2023. "How relevant is information? Some experimental evidence." AEA RCT Registry. March 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11125-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We have a control group that does not receive objective information about a variety of topics, and a treatment group that does receive such information. We want to measure whether objective information affects subject's opinions.
Intervention Start Date
2020-10-27
Intervention End Date
2020-10-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We want to know whether people respond differently when given objective information.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Our outcome is a respondent's opinion about a variety of topics, ranging form zero ("strongly disagree") to ten ("strongly agree").

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We split our sample of respondents randomly into a control group, which receives no objective information, and a treatment group that receives this information.

We ask subjects for their opinions about a variety of statements covering Covid-19, gun violence and global warming.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done online by the Qualtrics platform.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
200
Sample size: planned number of observations
200
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
100 respondents in the treatment group, 100 in the control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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