Information Nudge and Its Effects on Douyin's Disabling Personalized Recommendation Algorithm Function

Last registered on January 17, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Nudge and Its Effects on Douyin's Disabling Personalized Recommendation Algorithm Function
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015159
Initial registration date
January 15, 2025

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
January 17, 2025, 7:10 AM 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

Affiliation
Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
PI Affiliation
Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-02-23
End date
2025-04-13
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Douyin utilizes personalized recommendation algorithms to provide users with more relevant content and services tailored to their preferences. However, this feature may also lead to negative effects such as overuse and the creation of "information cocoons." The Douyin app offers a "One-Click Disable Personalized Recommendation Algorithm" function, after which users no longer receive content recommendations based on personalized factors.

This project aims to explore how providing information can more effectively improve users’ willingness to disable personalized recommendations. It also investigates changes in users' algorithm settings, usage patterns, and experiences after receiving such information. The findings will provide insights into helping digital platform users prevent overuse and avoid "information cocoons" while contributing to a deeper understanding of user psychology and behavior.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gao, Yu, Yang Lyu and Juanjuan Meng. 2025. "Information Nudge and Its Effects on Douyin's Disabling Personalized Recommendation Algorithm Function." AEA RCT Registry. January 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15159-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our intervention is to provide information to Douyin users about the potential positive effects if they disable the personalized recommendation algorithm on Douyin, and then we observe whether they actually disable it and how their usage time changes. There are two kinds of information as treatment in our experiment: (1) Disabling the personalized recommendation algorithm can help mitigate overuse (based on Gao et al., 2024); (2) Disabling the personalized recommendation algorithm can broaden information channels (based on Levy, 2021). In control group, we provide irrelevant information with comparable text length in Chinese, as active control.
Intervention Start Date
2025-03-02
Intervention End Date
2025-03-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
(1) Whether the Douyin user disables the personalized recommendation algorithm; (2) The usage time on Douyin.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
(1) Opinion polarization; (2) Subject well-being; (3) Working efficiency; (4) Preference for different video topics on Douyin; (5) Attitudes towards Douyin platform and personalized recommendation algorithm.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
All the secondary outcomes are self-reported by users in our surveys.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The core experimental module will randomly assign participants to three groups: Control, Treatment 1, and Treatment 2. Each group will receive two rounds of information, spaced one week apart. Participants will upload screenshots of their Douyin app homepage and the "Disable Personalized Recommendation Algorithm" interface to verify algorithm settings. Additionally, there will be questions for other relevant data.
Process Overview:
1. Control: Receives two rounds of unrelated information of comparable length to the experimental groups.
2. Treatment 1: In the first round, informed about the anti-addiction effects of disabling the algorithm; in the second round, informed about its effect on broadening information channels.
3. Treatment 2: In the first round, informed about the effects of broadening information channels; in the second round, informed about its anti-addiction effects.
This crossover experimental design will help identify the upper and lower bounds of the impacts of the two types of information.

Additionally, some participants may disable the personalized recommendation algorithm after receiving the experimental information but later re-enable it. Potential reasons for this behavior include present bias, expectation bias, and projection bias related to their utility functions. Therefore, we include questions related to these mechanism in our surveys to tease out the channels.

As for the timeline, there will be firstly a recruitment survey. One week later, baseline survey + wave 1 information. Another week later, wave 2 information. Another week later, endline survey. And there will be also a long-run tracking survey one month after the endline survey.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization by computer
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 Douyin users
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
200 users control, 200 users receive treatment 1, 200 users receive treatment 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institutional Review Board, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University
IRB Approval Date
2025-01-12
IRB Approval Number
#2025-01