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AI and Online Interactions

Last registered on May 13, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
AI and Online Interactions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013548
Initial registration date
May 02, 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
May 13, 2024, 11:51 AM 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
Lena Song
Affiliation
UIUC
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Elliott Ash
PI Affiliation
ETH Zurich
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PI Name
Yichuan Lou
PI Affiliation
University of Tokyo
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-05-06
End date
2025-05-31
Keywords
Behavior, Other
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study explore the impact of AI agents on online communication. We vary the presence of these entities and examine its effects on online interactions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ash, Elliott, Yichuan Lou and Lena Song. 2024. "AI and Online Interactions ." AEA RCT Registry. May 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13548-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-05-06
Intervention End Date
2025-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Effort in engagement, valuation of engagement
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will run a series of online survey experiments to look at the effect of the presence of AI agents.
Experimental Design Details
We will conduct 4 surveys, with different participants (i.e. each participant only complete one survey).

The survey are as follows:
1. survey where we see what happens to people sending online messages when there’s non-human receivers present
2. survey where we see what happens to people sending online messages when there’s non-human other senders present
3. survey where we ask participants to rate messages
4. survey where we elicit how people perceive messages when there's non-human senders present

The survey starts with consent, demographic, baseline attitudes, and attention check questions. We then ask about social media usage and prosocial tendencies, and we explain the difference between rule-based chatbots and generative-AI conversational chatbots. Participants then undertake one of the following tasks:

- Sender task: Write a post similar to what they would write on social media.
- Receiver task: Read a social media post and engage with it through comments and reactions

We will randomize participants into communicating with different compositions of agents. For example, for sender surveys, we will randomize participants into sending their message to one of the following 8 compositions:
3 humans
2 humans vs. 1 bot
2 humans vs. 1 gen-AI
3 bots
3 gen-AI
1 humans vs. 2 bots
1 humans vs 2 gen-AI
1 humans with 1 genAI and 1 bot

We will independently randomize participants into having their name shared vs. not with equal probability -- to manipulate the strength of the signaling motive. This allows us to study whether people are more likely to engage in signaling behavior (e.g., signaling that they are donating to charities) when they are interacting with humans rather than bots.
Randomization Method
in-survey randomization on qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
8000 participants
Sample size: planned number of observations
8000 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Participants randomized with equal probability into each treatment arm
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