Fake news, trolling, and information transmission

Last registered on February 24, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Fake news, trolling, and information transmission
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017912
Initial registration date
February 19, 2026

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
February 24, 2026, 6:19 AM EST

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

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Tilman Fries
Affiliation
LMU Munich
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Steffen Huck
PI Affiliation
WZB
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Pauline Vorjohann
PI Affiliation
University of Exeter
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-02-20
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Lab
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This experiment investigates the effect of fake news and trolling incentives on information transmission in natural language debates.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Fries, Tilman, Steffen Huck and Pauline Vorjohann. 2026. "Fake news, trolling, and information transmission." AEA RCT Registry. February 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17912-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We compare a baseline setting where debaters (senders) have aligned incentives to aggregate information with settings where senders may have misaligned incentives: either to push a specific agenda (Fake News) or to disrupt accuracy (Trolling).
Intervention Start Date
2026-02-20
Intervention End Date
2026-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Absolute distance between audience member's posterior belief and true state.
Absolute distance between audience member's posterior and prior belief.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
See attached pdf.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Difference between audience member's posterior and prior belief.
Belief movement and belief uncertainty reduction between two periods.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
See attached pdf.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Two participants are debating a claim that is either TRUE or FALSE. Their debate is observed by other participants (the debate audience). Audience members state their belief that the state is TRUE at multiple points during the debate. Depending on treatment, debaters have incentives to induce accurate, inflated, or inaccurate beliefs.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
By ex-ante committment to session schedule. Further randomization within-session by experiment software.
Randomization Unit
Experimental session. Further within-session randomization accross experimental rounds.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
120 debate groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
720 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
30 debate groups in Baseline, 45 debate groups in Fake, 45 debate groups in Troll.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
80 percent power to detect a 5pp increase in belief accuracy when comparing actually aligned groups in Fake or Troll to all groups in Baseline.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Exeter Business School Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2026-02-09
IRB Approval Number
12199778
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information