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Trial End Date December 06, 2025 May 08, 2026
Last Published August 25, 2025 09:09 AM January 27, 2026 09:39 AM
Intervention (Public) This study is to be conducted in an introductory economics course (Principles of Macroeconomics) at a large, comprehensive research university. When grades are posted for the first and second exam in Principles of Macroeconomics, the course grader will send an email or Canvas message to each student providing: (1) their grade on the exam, (2) a link to the answer key for the exam, and (3) one of 3 randomly chosen messages: 1. (Treatment 1) Information on their Relative Performance Rank (i.e. percentile) on the exam 2. (Treatment 2) Information on their Relative Effort Rank (i.e. percentile) in the period prior to the exam 3. (Control) No Additional Information The Relative Performance Rank will be determined using actual test score distributions for the entire course. The Relative Effort Rank will be determined by an index measure generated using Canvas course analytics to capture relative course engagement. REVISION: The information above applies to experiment run in Spring 2025 semester. For Fall 2025 semester, the study will be conducted in two introductory economics courses (Principles of Macroeconomics AND Principles of Microeconomics). This study is to be conducted in an introductory economics course (Principles of Macroeconomics) at a large, comprehensive research university. When grades are posted for the first and second exam in Principles of Macroeconomics, the course grader will send an email or Canvas message to each student providing: (1) their grade on the exam, (2) a link to the answer key for the exam, and (3) one of 3 randomly chosen messages: 1. (Treatment 1) Information on their Relative Performance Rank (i.e. percentile) on the exam 2. (Treatment 2) Information on their Relative Effort Rank (i.e. percentile) in the period prior to the exam 3. (Control) No Additional Information The Relative Performance Rank will be determined using actual test score distributions for the entire course. The Relative Effort Rank will be determined by an index measure generated using Canvas course analytics to capture relative course engagement. REVISION 1: The information above applies to experiment run in Spring 2025 semester. For Fall 2025 semester, the study will be conducted in two introductory economics courses (Principles of Macroeconomics AND Principles of Microeconomics). REVISION 2: The information above applies to experiment run in Spring 2025 semester. For Spring 2026 semester, the study will be conducted in two introductory economics courses (Principles of Macroeconomics AND Principles of Microeconomics).
Intervention End Date December 06, 2025 April 20, 2026
Primary Outcomes (Explanation) Future exam performance is the exam score on the exam immediately following the intervention. Course withdrawal is whether the student withdrew from the course before the end of the course. Future exam performance is the exam score on the exam(s) immediately following the intervention. Course withdrawal is whether the student withdrew from the course before the end of the course.
Planned Number of Clusters 1200 students (approximation which depends on student enrollment) Fall 2025: 2400 additional students (approximation which depends on student enrollment) 1200 students (approximation which depends on student enrollment) Fall 2025: 2400 additional students (approximation which depends on student enrollment) Spring 2026: 2000 additional students (approximation which depends on student enrollment)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms 400 control, 400 treatment 1, 400 treatment 2 Fall 2025: additional 800 control, 800 treatment 1, 800 treatment 2 400 control, 400 treatment 1, 400 treatment 2 Fall 2025: additional 800 control, 800 treatment 1, 800 treatment 2 Spring 2026: additional 666 control, 667 treatment 1, 667 treatment 2
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