AEA RCT Registry

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Impact of Oaths and Observability on Civility

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0014941

Initial registration date

December 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

December 03, 2024, 1:39 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Laura Gee

Affiliation

Tufts University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Olga Shurchkov

PI Affiliation

Wellesley College

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PI Name

Jing Liu

PI Affiliation

Tufts University

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-12-02

End date

2025-12-02

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Lab

Additional Keywords

social preferences, online interactions, economic experiments

JEL code(s)

C90, D01, D91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

This study is designed to experimentally test the effect of two behavioral nudges – pledging to act civilly and public observability – on civility in online communications. In our study, online participants will provide responses to real statements sourced from online platforms on various topics, choosing from a list containing civil and uncivil responses that either agree or disagree with a given statement. Furthermore, we will randomize subjects into treatments where their responses would potentially be publicly viewed by others, while other subjects will be providing purely hypothetical responses. We will also collect subject beliefs, ideological leanings, and demographics to conduct heterogeneity analyses.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Gee, Laura, Jing Liu and Olga Shurchkov. 2024. "Impact of Oaths and Observability on Civility." AEA RCT Registry. December 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14941-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The experiment will be fully computerized using Qualtrics and will be conducted online (e.g., Prolific). The study will begin with subjects signing the informed consent form. Consenting subjects will be taken to a welcome screen explaining the general structure of the experiment. The study is comprised of two parts of decision-making followed by a brief post-experiment questionnaire. Subjects will face attention checks through the survey. After the survey, subjects will be invited to read a debriefing statement. We anticipate that the study will last on average about 10 minutes.

Intervention Start Date

2024-12-02

Intervention End Date

2025-12-02

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our primary outcome of interest is the level of civility of the statement chosen by the participant for a given statement (a binary variable where 1 = civil; 0 = uncivil).

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

• Agreement/Disagreement with the statement (0 = disagree; 1 = agree)
• Whether the statement is True/False/Half-True (1 = False; 0.5 = Half-True; 0 = True)
• Statement gender topic domain
• Statement existing responses online (number of views, number of comments)
• Time to decision on civility
• Perceptions:
o Belief about the statement being true/false/half-true
o Political ideology associated with the content of the statement
o Maleness of topic of statement

• Demographic information:
o Gender
o Race/Ethnicity
o Age
o Education
o Employment

• Preferences:
o Risk Preferences
o Social Preferences
o Political views

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experiment will be fully computerized using Qualtrics and will be conducted online (e.g., Prolific). The study will begin with subjects signing the informed consent form. Consenting subjects will be taken to a welcome screen explaining the general structure of the experiment. The study is comprised of two parts of decision-making followed by a brief post-experiment questionnaire. Subjects will face attention checks through the survey. After the survey, subjects will be invited to read a debriefing statement. We anticipate that the study will last on average about 10 minutes.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

NA

Sample size: planned number of observations

We are collecting data on 1500 subjects split equally across 4 separate treatments.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

375 per treatment arm

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

According to observational data, about 50% of comments online are deemed to be uncivil (Chen et al. 2019; Masullo et al. 2021). To be able to reject the null hypothesis that the predicted civility rate under oath is 10 percentage points larger than the predicted civility rate without oath (with p=0.05 and α=0.80), we would therefore need a sample size of 387 observations for each pairwise comparison. We are collecting data on 1500 subjects because we have 4 separate treatments. Note that we are going to run a pilot to refine our power calculations, upon which we will update the pre-registration as needed.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB