Defaults and Sharing Personal Information about the COVID-19 infections

Last registered on March 28, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Defaults and Sharing Personal Information about the COVID-19 infections

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013191

Initial registration date

March 13, 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

March 19, 2024, 5:11 PM EDT

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

Last updated

March 28, 2024, 6:35 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Shusaku Sasaki

Affiliation

Osaka University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2024-03-15

End date

2027-03-31

Keywords

Behavior, Governance, Health

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study experimentally examines how default settings influence individuals’ decision to share their personal information, such as the COVID-19 infection experiences and behavioral history, in the wake of a future pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific technologies for contact tracing were introduced to accurately identify signs of the spread of infection and take immediate actions. However, in many countries, the rate at which people accepted the technology and shared information about their infections and social contacts was low. For example, individuals were required to download a contact tracing application in order to accept the technology, and such the procedure possibly determined the rate. On the other hand, it has been discussed that, in order to increase the rate of information sharing, it is necessary to adopt a method in which information about people's infections and contacts is tracked by default and they are allowed to exit from the tracked condition through an additional procedure. In this study, we label the former as “pre-opt-in” and the latter as “post-opt-out.” This study creates the conditions of pre-opt-in and post-opt-out on an online survey. We ask those recently infected with COVID-19 questions about date of infection, vaccination status, heath status, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, height and weight, symptoms, and social contacts. However, since this is private information, respondents can choose not to provide it (the attendance fee does not change if they choose not to provide it). In the pre-opt-in condition, respondents are asked if they are willing to answer these questions before the questions are displayed. In the post-opt-out condition, respondents are asked if they are willing to provide response data for these questions after they have answered these questions. Using a randomized controlled trial, we evaluate how the difference between the pre-opt-in and pre-opt-out conditions affects the rate of information sharing and the distribution of shared information.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Sasaki, Shusaku. 2024. "Defaults and Sharing Personal Information about the COVID-19 infections." AEA RCT Registry. March 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13191-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

A) Pre-opt-in: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them.
B) Post-opt-out: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted.
C) Control: Participants will not be given the option of not sharing information about their COVID-19 infections and social contacts, while being offered additional rewards.

D) Pre-opt-in + Opt-in-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them. Here, in the question asking whether or not to answer, the “yes” option is selected by default.
E) Pre-opt-in + Opt-out-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them. Here, in the question asking whether or not to answer, the “no” option is selected by default.
F) Post-opt-out + Opt-in-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted. Here, in the question asking whether or not to provide, the “yes” option is selected by default.
G) Post-opt-out + Opt-out-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted. Here, in the question asking whether or not to provide, the “no” option is selected by default.

H) WTA: Participants will be asked, in a financially incentivized format, about their willingness to accept (WTA) for sharing the information about their COVID-19 infections and social contacts.

Intervention Start Date

2024-03-15

Intervention End Date

2024-03-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Whether or not respondents share the information about their COVID-19 infections and social contacts (1/0)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

- The distributions of shared information (date of infection, vaccination status, health status, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, height and weight, symptoms, and social contacts)

- Autonomy and emotional burden (1) Did you want to share the information voluntarily?, (2) Did you think you were being forced to share the information?, (3) Did you feel distressed when you read the explanation, and (4) Did you feel that the explanation needed to be improved?

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

*In the quesions on autonomy and emotional burden, the respondents rate to what extent they agree with each statement on a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). After inverting the responses of (2), (3), and (4), we add the scores of the four items and divide it by four, which we use another secondary outcome variable.

Experimental Design

In this experiment, we randomly assign respondents to one of the eight groups:

A) Pre-opt-in: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them.
B) Post-opt-out: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted.
C) Control: Participants will not be given the option of not sharing information about their COVID-19 infections and social contacts, while being offered additional rewards.

D) Pre-opt-in + Opt-in-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them. Here, in the question asking whether or not to answer, the “yes” option is selected by default.
E) Pre-opt-in + Opt-out-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to answer the questions about the COVID-19 infections and social contacts before the questions are displayed. Those who agree will proceed to the questions’ page and answer them. Here, in the question asking whether or not to answer, the “no” option is selected by default.
F) Post-opt-out + Opt-in-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted. Here, in the question asking whether or not to provide, the “yes” option is selected by default.
G) Post-opt-out + Opt-out-communication: Participants will be asked if they are willing to provide response data for the COVID-19 questions after they have answered the questions. The data of those who disagree will be deleted. Here, in the question asking whether or not to provide, the “no” option is selected by default.

H) WTA: Participants will be asked, in a financially incentivized format, about their willingness to accept (WTA) for sharing the information about their COVID-19 infections and social contacts.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Stratified randomization by a survey company. The strata are based on sex (male/female), age (20-39/40-49/50-59/60-79), and region (urban/rural).

Randomization Unit

Individuals

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

8,000 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1,000 individuals

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We used STATA/MP 18.0 to conduct a power analysis. Our goal was to obtain 0.80 power to detect an effect size of 0.12534607 at the standard 0.05 alpha error probability. We calculated the effect size using the lower bound of the confidence interval for the estimated difference between the pre-opt-in group and the post-opt-out group in the pre-experiment. Estimated sample size for each group is 1001. We discussed the estimation with the survey company and determined a sample size of 1,000 individuals for each group.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research, Osaka University IRB

IRB Approval Date

2024-02-26

IRB Approval Number

2024CRER0226-2

Analysis Plan