Information Bundling and Polarizing Persuasion

Last registered on January 31, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Bundling and Polarizing Persuasion
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012729
Initial registration date
January 29, 2024

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 31, 2024, 12:14 PM EST

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
Giampaolo Bonomi
Affiliation
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-02-15
End date
2024-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Electoral
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study how bundling together policy recommendations on different policy issues affects voters' policy views. Voters are randomized into (i) treatment messages, each consisting of policy recommendation on two policy issues, and (ii) control messages, where the same policy recommendations are sent separately. The issues bundled differ in ideological value, policy domain, and complexity. We investigate the presence of belief spillovers across policy domains, and the role played by trust and identity in explaining these spillovers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bonomi, Giampaolo. 2024. "Information Bundling and Polarizing Persuasion." AEA RCT Registry. January 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12729-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-02-15
Intervention End Date
2024-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Policy views (ideal policies) on: trade policy, abortion policy, healthcare and social security reforms, redistributive policies, affirmative action, immigration policy, environmental policy.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment is implemented online on Amazon Mechanical Turk via Cloud Research. Before randomization, we collect the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, as well as their perceived importance and knowledge of the policy issues used as main outcomes. Participants are then randomized into (i) treatment messages, each consisting of written policy recommendation on two policy issues, and (ii) control messages, where the same policy recommendations are reported separately (i.e. from different sources). The issues bundled differ in ideological value, policy domain, and complexity. After reading the messages, respondents are asked to provide their policy preference of the two issues.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization performed through Qualtrics' block randomization option.
Randomization Unit
Individual randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
12,000
Sample size: planned number of observations
12,000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
For each pair of proposals on issues X and Y, an equal number of respondents will be allocated to the following three conditions: (i) X and Y made by the same source (ii) X and Y made by different sources. (iii) no message shown. Subjects will be assigned evenly to conditions.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UCSD Office Of IRB Administration
IRB Approval Date
2023-10-30
IRB Approval Number
809110
Analysis Plan