Experimental Design
The first step of this study is the recruitment of participating universities and the assignment to one of the treatment arms (small vs large, gain vs loss, control). From there the researchers will be in contact with the universities in the summer of 2024 to communicate procedure, expectations, and to send materials (posters and bands) for their treatment condition.
Initial contact with universities will be made to the Title IX office and Title IX coordinator at each university, leveraging any personal connections to help establish contact. The reason for choosing the Title IX office at each school is due to the fact that a) each university is required to have a Title IX office, which standardizes the process, and b) the Title IX office holds statistics on student reports of sexual violence on campus. This will be one of the primary data sources to measure the reduction in sexual violence. Title IX reports are further subcategorized by type of violence (assault, misconduct, and harassment, among others), allowing the researchers to look at the effect of the intervention on each subcategory as well as by looking at changes in sexual violence more generally. In case there are any potential confounds such as stigma surrounding Title IX reporting, reporting form heterogeneity, etc. a secondary outcome measure will be self-reporting numbers taken from the baseline and endline surveys. In using these two measures, the researchers should be able to construct a robust measure of the outcome variable of interest, the prevalence of sexual violence on campus.
Before the university is chosen for participation, the researchers will require written permission from both the Title IX office and, where relevant and required, the central university administration. Due to the small number of treatment universities this can be handled on a case-by-case basis to allow the researchers to navigate the bureaucracy of individual institutions, but written permissions will be a requirement for participation.
This study will be split into two waves of rollout, in order to simulate a pilot and allow for the researchers to better understand the potential issues with distribution or study design before implementing it at all universities. The first stage will involve two universities in the fall semester of 2024 (August 2024-December 2024), one control university and one treatment university. The researchers will observe how the study design works for this initial rollout to inform any changes that may be necessary before distributing the wristbands to all treatment universities. The second wave of this experiment will occur in the second semester of that year (January 2025-May 2025) with remaining universities.
At the beginning of the term, the baseline survey will be sent around to the students at the university for completion, with 1 week allotted for its completion. It will be a Qualtrics form sent out to all students via university email by the Title IX office. This email will encourage students to respond for the sake of the research, but also will mention the potentially distressing nature of the questions and signpost resources for those who may feel distressed. This email will be written in conjunction with the Title IX office at each university to ensure it abides by all legal and university-imposed requirements. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. All questions in the survey will be optional, apart from a question that requires a university email address. This question will be used to verify that the participants attend the university in question.
At the end of this week, the volunteers (~5-10 per institution) in the economics/psychology/sexual assault prevention departments of the university will set up tables in busy thoroughfares of the university as well as place posters around the campus. To obtain a band, a student must sign an informed consent form and a “personal commitment” pledge to be an active bystander as well as a short description of what an active bystander is. At universities in the “large” condition, replacement bands will be on hand for the duration of the semester for those who lose or break theirs. A similar pledge must be signed to receive a replacement band. At the end of the semester (December 2024 for wave 1, May 2025 for wave 2) the endline survey will be distributed by the same means as the baseline. Both surveys are attached to the end of this document. The questions are similar for normative questions but the endline survey does contain some specific questions about uptake and usage of the bands. At this point, the data obtained through the surveys will be used in addition to secondary data obtained by participating universities of official sexual violence reports to complete data analysis. The secondary data required will just include the date of a completed report and the number of reports received, with no identifying information or details attached. All data will be anonymized before it is used. Both surveys will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. The surveys will require a university email to be completed but will not store this information outside of verification purposes.
Over the course of the trial, the researchers will signpost resources for complaints or comments about the research via posters and the initial survey email sent to students. The researchers will monitor these complaints or comments with the Title IX office to better understand what behaviours the students are experiencing through the trial and to discuss about the continuation of the trial. The Title IX office and the university administration will have the power to end the trial early if they determine that the risks and behaviours observed are creating sufficient negative externalities to end the trial.
Further monitoring will continue at universities through their regular channels for dealing with sexual violence. Each of these departments that could receive information regarding the progress of the trial and any negative side effects will be made aware of the reporting mechanisms available to the researchers and the Title IX office as part of this trial.
At control universities, the surveys will be distributed in the same way but no bands will be passed out.
The data analysis will follow a synthetic control approach. The control universities will be weighted to provide a single control comparison point with matched characteristics with the trial universities. They will be compared on normative changes over the course of the semester as well as the change in sexual violence reporting using official channels.