Understanding Loneliness

Last registered on September 09, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Understanding Loneliness
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0004677
Initial registration date
September 07, 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
September 09, 2019, 6:27 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Harvard University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Harvard University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-09-10
End date
2020-09-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
See pre-analysis plan
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Anders, Jenna and Amanda Pallais. 2019. "Understanding Loneliness." AEA RCT Registry. September 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4677-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2019-10-01
Intervention End Date
2019-10-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
See pre-analysis plan.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See below.
Experimental Design Details
Interested Ph.D. students will sign up for a four-week trivia competition. They will hear about the trivia competition through a variety of methods (e.g., facebook, emails, word of mouth). Students will be allowed to sign up in (1) pre-formed teams of six or (2) in small groups or individually to be placed in teams of six. When students sign up for the trivia competition, they will consent to be in the study and be asked to complete a baseline survey. After students sign up, we will combine individuals and small groups into teams of six (depending on the number of signups, we may not be able to form teams of exactly six). We will eliminate teams that are mostly non-Ph.D. students (e.g., undergrads or masters students if they mistakenly sign up) or economics Ph.D. students. (Economics Ph.D. students were invited to participate in a pilot.)

Then, we will randomize which teams get in. We will stratify based on whether the teams are pre-formed teams of six or teams that we created from individuals and small groups who signed up. Treated teams will be invited to attend the trivia competition, while control teams will not. We view the trivia competition as inducing teams to spend time with each other on four distinct social occasions. (Of course, students are not forced to attend the trivia if they get in and can choose to come on some nights and not others.)

Students in both the treatment and control groups will be asked to complete 3 follow-up surveys that will be distributed via email and text. The first will be during the trivia competition, the second will be roughly a month after the end of the trivia competition, and the final survey will be at the beginning of the spring semester.

These surveys as well as the baseline survey will ask information about individuals’ relationship with their teammates as well as their overall social activities, loneliness, and satisfaction with their social life. Students will get $15 from Amazon.com as a reward for taking each survey. If they complete all four, they will get an additional $10 from Amazon.com.
Randomization Method
See pre-analysis plan.
Randomization Unit
See pre-analysis plan.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
See pre-analysis plan.
Sample size: planned number of observations
See pre-analysis plan.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
See pre-analysis plan.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University-Area Committee on the Use of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2019-08-07
IRB Approval Number
IRB19-1077
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