Emotions and Policy Views

Last registered on January 17, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Emotions and Policy Views
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015205
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, 7:16 AM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UC Berkeley

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Harvard University
PI Affiliation
HEC

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2024-07-21
End date
2024-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Our project seeks to understand the relationship between emotional patterns and public opinions on global policy issues at the core of the polarization of our societies, particularly in the realms of existential threats (climate change). In the context of post-industrial societies, where the feeling of belonging to social classes and ideologies are eroding, individual emotional states (anger, fear, for instance) seem to play a critical role in the support or opposition to policies, to amplify the polarization of citizens over these policies and to augment anti-system votes. Understanding the impact of these emotions on policy views is becoming critical for rebuilding trust, enhancing democracy and improving governance. We design and implement an experimental survey to understand the impact, and channels of impact, of emotions on people's trust and attitudes towards policy in the United States.





External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Algan, Yann , Eva Davoine and Stefanie Stantcheva. 2025. "Emotions and Policy Views." AEA RCT Registry. January 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15205-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We study the causal impact of emotions and their channels of impact, on the support of policies, by designing and implementing large scale social economic surveys in the United States where we prime citizens in different emotional states.

Particularly, we evaluate the impact of emotions on citizens’ attitudes towards the main trade-off implied by climate policies: incentives versus regulation, civil liberties versus restriction of freedom, or efficiency versus redistribution.

We also document the main channels through which emotions could alter these trade-offs, through the level of trust towards experts and governments, the malleability of beliefs, or the way information is processed. This final part is critical to provide new insights into policymaking.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2024-07-21
Intervention End Date
2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome variables of the experiment are policy views. Specifically, we aim to understand how emotions shapes citizens’ attitudes towards the main trade-off implied by climate policies: incentives versus regulation, civil liberties versus restriction of freedom, or efficiency versus redistribution. We also investigate how these policy views translate into willingness to take real stake actions, such as willingness to sign a petition or donate for a cause.

To understand the underlying mechanisms leading to these policy views, we ask questions to elicit trust, information processing, and malleability to framing.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
In addition, we are also interested in the heterogeneity by political affiliation and hence ask respondents about their vote during the 2024 presidential elections. Moreover, we will investigate whether background characteristics of respondents play a role. We will thus look at outcomes by income, age, gender, and education levels.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We randomize 1) the emotional video shown to respondents; 2) the framing of a question gauging the support for a specific environmental policy; 3) the amount to pay to access additional information about climate change.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization is done by the survey software (Qualtrics).
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is the individual respondent.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The planned number of clusters is around 10,000 individuals.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 10,000 individuals.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
The sample is divided into 8 arms: 1/8 sees the cognitive video, 1/8 sees the fear video, 1/8 sees the anger video, 1/8 sees the relax video, 1/8 sees the cognitive + fear video, 1/8 sees the cognitive + anger video, 1/8 sees the cognitive + relax video, 1/8 sees no video at all. In each of these treatment arms, respondents are also evenly randomized between framing branches (environmental framing/efficiency framing/neutral framing), and different amounts to pay to access additional information about climate change.
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
Harvard
IRB Approval Date
2022-07-22
IRB Approval Number
IRB22-0936

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 15, 2024, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 15, 2024, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
10,000
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Yes
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
10,000
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials