Are risk perceptions and policy preferences responsive to information? Evidence from the covid-19 crisis in South Africa and Brazil

Last registered on July 02, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Are risk perceptions and policy preferences responsive to information? Evidence from the covid-19 crisis in South Africa and Brazil
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005938
Initial registration date
May 29, 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
May 29, 2020, 3:33 PM EDT

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

Last updated
July 02, 2020, 3:04 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
LSE

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
LSE

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-06-01
End date
2021-06-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The growing COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented health, as well as economic crisis. Many governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have advocated the public health strategies adopted elsewhere, and introduced various levels of “lockdown” to reduce the number of new infections. While these measures can reduce transmissions and “flatten the curve” of new cases to protect fragile health systems, they can come at a great economic cost. Voices have emerged against these strategies in many settings, claiming that the economic price to pay is too high, and that these measures hurt more than they help. Using a survey experiment where respondents are randomized to receiving different messages, we test the impact of different messages on people’s perceptions of the health and economic risks they face, how they perceive the health vs. economic trade-offs involved by some social distancing measures, and their support for alternative policies.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lagarde, Mylene and Nicholas Stacey. 2020. "Are risk perceptions and policy preferences responsive to information? Evidence from the covid-19 crisis in South Africa and Brazil." AEA RCT Registry. July 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5938-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This intervention seeks to assess how the framing of messaging related to COVID-19 policy responses influences individuals' perceptions of the health risks of the pandemic and the economic impact of non-pharmaceutical lockdown policies. Through a survey experiment, individuals are randomly assigned to receiving alternative messages.
Intervention Start Date
2020-06-03
Intervention End Date
2020-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Three families of outcomes: (1) perceived health risks ; (2) perceived economic risks and (3) policy preferences
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Each family of outcomes will be constructed based on several questions asked

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Individuals will be randomised to one of three groups:
- 'public health' group: respondents see a short video emphasizing the standard 'public health' message explaining the benefits of social distancing measures to limit the spread of the virus.
- 'trade-off' group: respondents see a short video emphasizing the standard 'public health' message explaining the benefits of social distancing measures, but recognizing its potential economic costs.
- control group: no information

Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Respondents will be randomly assigned to treatments via random-number generation during the survey.
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
na
Sample size: planned number of observations
2500 individuals in each country.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
equal allocation to each group (about 830 in each group)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
London School of Economics
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-22
IRB Approval Number
1146
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