Beliefs and Attitudes in Debating Competitions

Last registered on February 05, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Beliefs and Attitudes in Debating Competitions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003922
Initial registration date
March 06, 2019

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
March 22, 2019, 12:22 PM EDT

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

Last updated
February 05, 2021, 4:04 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Germany
Region
Country
Netherlands
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Egon Tripodi
Affiliation
University of Essex
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Peter Schwardmann
PI Affiliation
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
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PI Name
Joël van der Weele
PI Affiliation
University of Amsterdam
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2019-03-08
End date
2019-06-01
Keywords
Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Electoral, Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We administer a series of surveys at two international debating competitions and combine these with official tournament data from expert judges to better understand various aspects of human communication.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Schwardmann, Peter, Egon Tripodi and Joël van der Weele. 2021. "Beliefs and Attitudes in Debating Competitions." AEA RCT Registry. February 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3922
Former Citation
Schwardmann, Peter et al. 2021. "Beliefs and Attitudes in Debating Competitions." AEA RCT Registry. February 05. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3922/history/85206
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See pre-analysis plan.
Intervention Start Date
2019-03-08
Intervention End Date
2019-03-24

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Pre-debate beliefs
2. Pre-debate attitudes
3. Post-debate beliefs
4. Post-debate attitudes
5. Baseline beliefs
6. Speaker persuasiveness scores
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See pre-analysis plan.
Experimental Design Details
We exploit the natural experimental variation in university debating competitions, in which motions are secret up until 30 minutes before the debate and teams of debaters are randomly assigned a persuasion goal--to debate either in favor or against the motion. The side of the motion a debater has to defend represents our experimental treatment manipulation. We do not have a control group of debaters who do not have a persuasion goal.
Randomization Method
Randomization done by tournament organizers on a computer.
Randomization Unit
Two-player team of debaters.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
104 teams of debaters.
Sample size: planned number of observations
208 debaters.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
52 teams of debaters on each of the two sides of a debate.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee Economics and Business
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-17
IRB Approval Number
20181017051000
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-Analysis Plan: Beliefs and Attitudes in Debating Competitions

MD5: c24f746f18d46d06ef43fdc5687aaec3

SHA1: 1707db7584899ddd25e172a5cd0f742ec8f62cd8

Uploaded At: March 06, 2019

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