Good Ad, Bad Ad. Effect of Positive and Negative Political Content of Online Advertising

Last registered on November 02, 2018

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Good Ad, Bad Ad. Effect of Positive and Negative Political Content of Online Advertising
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003413
Initial registration date
October 31, 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
November 02, 2018, 5:48 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
university of warwick

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Warwick
PI Affiliation
ETH Zurich

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-10-31
End date
2018-11-21
Secondary IDs
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the role that the internet and social media (such as Facebook) play in political campaigns and elections. The aim of our project is to describe how voters respond to positive and negative advertising regarding politically relevant topics. We also aim to estimate the effect of (negative or positive) advertising on voting outcomes (turnout and candidate choice). We plan to collect data from the United States, in the weeks encompassing the 2018 US Mid-Term Elections, through an online experiment measuring individual responses to positive and negative advertising on socially relevant topics. We shall then combine this data with online advertising prices collected on Facebook. As we have shown in a previous paper (Cuevas et al., 2018), these prices can be used as a proxy for the intensity whereby political campaigns target individual users on social media.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Liberini, Federica, Michela Redoano and Michela Redoano. 2018. "Good Ad, Bad Ad. Effect of Positive and Negative Political Content of Online Advertising ." AEA RCT Registry. November 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3413-1.0
Former Citation
Liberini, Federica, Michela Redoano and Michela Redoano. 2018. "Good Ad, Bad Ad. Effect of Positive and Negative Political Content of Online Advertising ." AEA RCT Registry. November 02. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3413/history/36681
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-10-31
Intervention End Date
2018-11-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
See attached analysis plan
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See the analysis plan



Experimental Design Details
1. Pre-election survey (randomly assigned over the week preceding the US Elections). The survey shall consist of two sets of questions. The first set includes demographic questions (e.g., gender, age, marital status, location, Internet/Facebook use). The second set includes political questions (vote participation and candidate choice during recent presidential elections). The Pre-Election Survey has two objectives. First, we shall use it to build the respondents’ demographic and ideological profile (to be matched with a Facebook Audience). Second, we shall use the survey to assess the respondents’ intention over political choices (vote participation and orientation for the 2018 midterm elections).
2. Task. At the end of the pre-election survey, each respondent will be shown two Facebook-like post(s) (a mock), each regarding one politically-relevant topic. Each post will display a first sentence containing one objective and neutral factual statement. A second uninformative statement will frame the post in a neutral, positive or negative manner: this setup defines one control group (respondents receiving the neutrally framed text) and two treated groups (respondents receiving the positively and negatively framed text). Respondents will be randomly and uniformly assigned to one of the three groups, or versions of the post. Respondents will then be distracted with a simple, 10 seconds real effort task. After completing the task, respondents will finally be asked one question regarding the factual information contained in the first part of the post. The task has the objective of assessing how the framing of a newsfeed affects the ability of respondents to recall the factual information contained in the text.
3. Post-election survey (21 days after the pre-election survey). This survey shall consist only of political questions (vote participation and candidate choice in midterm elections). The Post-Election Survey’s objective is to collect information on the actual voting behavior of the respondent.

Randomization Method
The randomization will be done by Amazon's Mechanical Turk web service
Randomization Unit
The randomization units are individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The design is not clustered
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to have about 1,000 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 80-100 respondents per treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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

Request Information
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, University of Warwick
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-30
IRB Approval Number
19/18-19
Analysis Plan

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

Request Information

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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

Request Information

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