Does the way how Foreign Aid is framed effect public opinion about aid? Evidence from a Randomised Control Trial in Australia

Last registered on June 30, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Does the way how Foreign Aid is framed effect public opinion about aid? Evidence from a Randomised Control Trial in Australia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003055
Initial registration date
June 08, 2018

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
June 12, 2018, 10:42 PM EDT

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

Last updated
June 30, 2020, 2:22 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Australian National University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-06-11
End date
2020-10-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This survey experiment focuses on whether the way how Foreign Aid is framed effects public opinion about aid.


External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hoy, Christopher and Terence Wood. 2020. "Does the way how Foreign Aid is framed effect public opinion about aid? Evidence from a Randomised Control Trial in Australia." AEA RCT Registry. June 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3055-8.299999999999999
Former Citation
Hoy, Christopher and Terence Wood. 2020. "Does the way how Foreign Aid is framed effect public opinion about aid? Evidence from a Randomised Control Trial in Australia." AEA RCT Registry. June 30. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3055/history/71525
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In addition to the control group, four types of ‘information interventions’ will be provided in the survey experiment.

(T1) The ‘placebo group’ – this group will only receive very basic information on the aid project.

(T2) The ‘altruism’ treatment group – this group will receive information which frames the project in terms of the benefits it will bring people in other countries.

(T3) The ‘enlightened national interest’ treatment group – this group will receive information about how the project will bring indirect benefits to Australia.

(T4) The ‘Australia as a global leader’ treatment group – this group will receive information on how the project makes Australia a global leader in this area.

(see the content of the information interventions in the documents section)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2018-06-15
Intervention End Date
2018-06-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
There are five main outcomes of interest. These are:
1) Approval of aid (measured in question 2)
2) Desire for level of aid spending to be changed (measured in question 3)
3) What the purpose of aid should be (measured in question 4)
4) What sector the aid program should focus on (measured in question 5)
5) Whether people believe the initiative is a good aid project (measured in question 6)

(see the questionnaire in the documents section)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The effect of framing an aid initiative will be evaluated via an online survey of a nationally representative (on age, gender and location) sample of the Australian Population.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomisation was conducted using the survey firm’s software.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
4000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
800
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Power calculations have been conducted to estimate the sample size required based upon the average effect size and treatment group size of similar studies on this topic (eg Wood (2016)). The minimum detectable effect size on the primary question of interest (Desire for level of aid spending to be changed) is around 5 percentage points (with power 0.8 and alpha 0.05) with a sample size of 800 individuals in each group.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
ANU Human Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2018-04-27
IRB Approval Number
2018/264
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials