Do social norms influence physical activity? Evidence from a survey experiment in six MENA countries

Last registered on November 25, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Do social norms influence physical activity? Evidence from a survey experiment in six MENA countries
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017286
Initial registration date
November 20, 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
November 25, 2025, 7:53 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
Iman Sen
Affiliation
University of Maryland
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-11-24
End date
2026-02-28
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Physical inactivity is a major public health challenge globally, with particularly low rates in the MENA region. In this study, we test if social norms are correlated with and can influence physical activity. The study comprises a diagnostic survey measuring several social norms and physical activity and a survey experiment (i.e., a vignette) that tests responses to experimentally varying social norms. The target population is urban adults aged 30 and above in Egypt, Morocco, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq, with approximately 1,200 respondents per country. The surveys are carried out online using Facebook Messenger. The main outcome of interest is the physical activity engagement reported in the survey experiment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sen, Iman. 2025. "Do social norms influence physical activity? Evidence from a survey experiment in six MENA countries." AEA RCT Registry. November 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17286-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-11-24
Intervention End Date
2025-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The main outcome of interest is if the character in the vignette is likely to engage in physical activity.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The vignette will vary high versus low social empirical expectations (SE) and social normative expectations(NE) of physical activity in the community, leading to 4 possible scenarios (1/ high SE high NE, 2/ high SE, low NE 3/ low SE high NE, 4/ low SE low NE). The gender of the character in the vignette will also be randomly varied. Therefore, there are 4 conditions for a male character and 4 for the female character. Two of these scenarios will be randomly asked to each respondent.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization by a computer
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit is individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The diagnostic study will be completed with approximately 8,000 individuals in 6 countries.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Since each individual is presented with 2 randomly assigned conditions for the vignette, we expect to have about 16,000 observations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We expect the 4 conditions for the male and 4 conditions for the female vignette to be assigned with equal probability over the 16,000 observations. Therefore, we expect to have 2,000 observations for each vignette condition.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
HML IRB
IRB Approval Date
2025-11-20
IRB Approval Number
3192
Analysis Plan

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