Leveraging Social Media to Enhance Mental Health: A Field Experiment

Last registered on October 26, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Leveraging Social Media to Enhance Mental Health: A Field Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016643
Initial registration date
September 01, 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
September 03, 2025, 9:30 AM EDT

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

Last updated
October 26, 2025, 8:08 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Sourav Das
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-09-01
End date
2026-04-01
Keywords
Behavior, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The main objective of the study is to assess whether exposure to positive psychology
content on social media can improve mental health outcomes. To investigate this, it will
conduct a field experiment in Bangladesh.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Das, Sourav. 2025. "Leveraging Social Media to Enhance Mental Health: A Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. October 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16643-1.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-10-09
Intervention End Date
2025-10-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Kindness, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Well-being
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will be recruited through direct outreach to class representatives at universities
in Bangladesh. The class representatives of different classes of these universities will inform
students about the study and invite them to complete the baseline survey. At the end of
the baseline survey, participants will be instructed to send a friend request to a dedicated
Facebook account created and operated by me for this study. From the pool of participants
who have sent the friend request, randomization will be conducted to assign them into two
groups:
• Treatment group: Participants will be asked to like and follow four Facebook pages (created and managed by me) that will post content related to positive psychology.
• Control group: Participants will be asked to like and follow four Facebook pages (also
created and managed by me) that will post neutral, non-psychology-related content.
The intervention will last for three weeks. After these three weeks, participants will
complete an endline survey. Then, three months after the endline, a follow-up survey will be
conducted to examine the long-term impact of the intervention.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Class
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
90
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 classes in control, 30 classes in low saturation, 30 classes in high saturation
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University Ethics Committee, University of Kassel
IRB Approval Date
2025-08-13
IRB Approval Number
zEK-103
IRB Name
Bangladesh Bioethics Society
IRB Approval Date
2025-08-28
IRB Approval Number
ERC-BBS/2025/0013-40/004/2025
Analysis Plan

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