Online Deliberation on a Rent Control Ballot Initiative

Last registered on March 22, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Online Deliberation on a Rent Control Ballot Initiative
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007382
Initial registration date
March 21, 2021

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, 2021, 1:14 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2018-10-01
End date
2021-04-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We test a fundamental assumption underlying the literature on information aggregation and deliberation: that people update their
beliefs when listening to peers. We investigate whether this assumption holds in online deliberation among strangers prior to a ballot on rent control. In a two-wave survey experiment, we collect voting intentions and textual data from chat interactions before the ballot and self-reported votes after the ballot. The study design randomly assigns chat-group compositions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Huening, Hendrik, Lydia Mechtenberg and Stephanie Wang. 2021. "Online Deliberation on a Rent Control Ballot Initiative." AEA RCT Registry. March 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7382-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Subjects were randomly assigned to groups of five to do an online deliberation (free form chat) about the California Rent Control ballot initiative. There was also a control group who did not participate in any deliberation.
Intervention Start Date
2018-10-29
Intervention End Date
2018-12-04

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Change in vote from before deliberation to after deliberation
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Half of the participants are randomly assigned to groups of five and have an online deliberation about how they should vote on the California rent control initiative. The other half in the control are only asked to write one argument for and one argument against rent control. We have a baseline survey and a follow-up survey in which we ask about voting intentions, demographics, media consumption, and political orientation among other questions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
computer
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
750 respondents (150 groups who do deliberation)
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500 respondents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
750 in treatment and 750 in control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Pittsburgh
IRB Approval Date
2019-01-10
IRB Approval Number
STUDY18120082

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