Reducing Adolescent Social Media Use

Last registered on December 01, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Reducing Adolescent Social Media Use
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017254
Initial registration date
November 17, 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
December 01, 2025, 11:25 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

Name
Lena Song
Affiliation
UIUC
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Anya Samek
PI Affiliation
UCSD Rady
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PI Name
John List
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-10-27
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In this study, we use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of financial incentives and commitment devices designed to reduce adolescent social media use.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
List, John, Anya Samek and Lena Song. 2025. "Reducing Adolescent Social Media Use." AEA RCT Registry. December 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17254-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
There are two types of interventions:
1. Incentives: participants can earn money for reducing their social media use
2. Commitment device: participants are encouraged to use commitment device

For the incentives intervention, students will either be assigned to a control group or to one of two incentive groups that receives money for reducing their social media use. We will implement two different incentive levels for the incentive treatment groups.

For the commitment device intervention, students will be assigned to receive encouragement to use a commitment device in the control group, or receive additional tools or encouragement in the treatment group.
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-03
Intervention End Date
2027-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Social media use, demand for commitment, and welfare
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Working with schools in Illinois, we will conduct the study beginning in Fall 2025 and continuing across multiple waves. In each wave, a cohort of students will participate in the full study in-class, which includes a baseline survey, midline surveys, and an endline survey. Students will be randomly assigned to different groups that may receive incentives or encouragement to use tools to reduce social media use.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Class-level for the main interventions
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
40
Sample size: planned number of observations
400
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Equal number in each treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UC San Diego
IRB Approval Date
2025-03-04
IRB Approval Number
806543
Analysis Plan

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