Curating your Feed: Experimental Evidence from Instagram

Last registered on July 23, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Curating your Feed: Experimental Evidence from Instagram
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019180
Initial registration date
July 22, 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
July 23, 2026, 8:31 AM EDT

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
Katharina Kaeppel
Affiliation
Paris School of Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Philine Widmer
PI Affiliation
Paris School of Economics
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PI Name
Germain Gauthier
PI Affiliation
Bocconi University
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PI Name
Roland Hodler
PI Affiliation
University of St.Gallen
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-07-24
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Governance, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study how an intervention that teaches and encourages Instagram users to curate their own feed affects their content consumption, well-being, political attitudes, and gender norms. The study is a two-wave, individually randomized controlled trial with active Instagram users aged 18 to 35 from the United States (US). In the baseline wave, participants complete a survey and share data on their Instagram content; a randomly assigned treatment group is then shown how to use two built-in curation tools. Roughly six weeks later, an endline wave re-measures the same outcomes, measures further outcomes, and collects the same data on consumed content. We estimate intention-to-treat effects with baseline covariate adjustments and local average treatment effects using random assignment as an instrument for compliance.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gauthier, Germain et al. 2026. "Curating your Feed: Experimental Evidence from Instagram." AEA RCT Registry. July 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19180-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The treatment follows an encouragement design. Treated participants are shown how Instagram's built-in tools let them shape their feed, and are encouraged to use these tools during the baseline wave. The control group receives no such information and proceeds directly through the survey.
Intervention Start Date
2026-07-24
Intervention End Date
2026-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We will organize outcomes into broad families to answer questions regarding the effect of our treatment.
1. Instagram user experience
2. Well-being and mental health
3. Political attitudes
4. Views on current political events
5. Gender norms

Our descriptive analysis of Instagram use will involve content analyses of the Instagram data and is treated separately.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
For each family, we will construct an index when feasible and estimate the treatment effect on it.
We will construct these indices by extracting the first principal component from each family (based on the pooled baseline sample when available, and potentially excluding items with weak loadings).
We will also report estimates for all individual items in the survey. We will also ask participants about their knowledge of curation tools, reported use of these tools, and perceived usefulness of these tools. In general, the direction of the effects is an open empirical question.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants are US residents aged 18 to 35 who are active Instagram users, recruited via Prolific and Cloud Research in the US. Participants provide informed consent before any data are collected. We have access to basic demographics (e.g., age, gender, partisanship).

After answering a short battery of baseline questions and sharing data on their Instagram use, participants are randomized into either the treatment or the control group using the platforms' built-in randomizers. The treatment group receives information on different tools to curate their feed, and is encouraged to use these tools. The control group receives no such information.

Outcome measures and data on Instagram usage is collected in a second wave approximately six weeks after the baseline.

Assignment is at the individual level, stratified (blocked) by the interaction of gender and partisanship, all measured at baseline prior to randomization.

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Built-in platform randomizer on Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1,000 to 5,000, with the final total determined by the budget.
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,000 to 5,000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
~500 - 2,500 Treatment, ~500 - 2,500 Control (~50% - 50%)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Bocconi Ethics Committee (ECR)
IRB Approval Date
2026-03-27
IRB Approval Number
RA001173
Analysis Plan

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