Using Active Choice Interventions to Promote Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Last registered on April 17, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Using Active Choice Interventions to Promote Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005732

Initial registration date

April 17, 2020

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

April 17, 2020, 12:55 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Jesper Akesson

Affiliation

The Behaviouralist

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2020-03-26

End date

2020-03-29

Keywords

Health

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

The trial examines whether active choice interventions make people more willing to comply with social distancing policies in the UK and US.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Akesson, Jesper. 2020. "Using Active Choice Interventions to Promote Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic." AEA RCT Registry. April 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5732-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants are randomly shown two informational messages about COVID-19. Participants are further randomized into conditions where they also additionally receive an active choice intervention.

Intervention Start Date

2020-03-26

Intervention End Date

2020-03-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Participants' willingness to work from home and avoid seeing people in high-risk groups for 7 days, 2 months and 4 months, respectively.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

4,821 participants are recruited and randomly allocated to one of four groups. The groups are all the same size.

Experimental Design Details

The study was conducted between 26-29 March 2020. In total, 4,821 participants, half of which are from the US and half of which are from the UK, took part in the experiment. Participants were recruited via the panel provider Prolific Academic and the survey was run using Qualtrics. Participants are randomly allocated to one of four groups. The groups are all the same size.

Randomization Method

Simple randomization using Qualtrics randomization tool

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

4,821 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Approximately 1,200

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We conducted power calculations for binary versions of our outcomes (coded as 1 if the participants answer 3 or 4, and 0 otherwise). If we pool our two active choice groups, so that our sample size in the treatment group is 2,400, we are able to detect a 4-percentage-point difference with 80% power (assuming a baseline of 0.5).

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB