Information campaigns, environment norms, and behaviour: Evidence from the field

Last registered on July 08, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information campaigns, environment norms, and behaviour: Evidence from the field
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007439
Initial registration date
July 07, 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
July 08, 2021, 2:59 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-01-25
End date
2021-10-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Information campaigns that aim to encourage pro-environment activities are a widely popular policy instrument. In addition to closing the information gap related to target behaviours, such interventions can potentially change the beliefs that individuals hold about the appropriateness of these behaviours. This is particularly likely in the context of environment behaviours because of the normative nature of interventions, where a ‘correct’ behaviour is often encouraged. We look at whether individuals respond to information campaigns in the environmental domain because of their informational value or because they expect the campaign to change the social norm around these behaviours, and want to adhere to these new norms. We aim to separately identify these two channels through a field experiment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sherif, Raisa. 2021. "Information campaigns, environment norms, and behaviour: Evidence from the field." AEA RCT Registry. July 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7439-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Information intervention in the form of an online course on waste management. Subjects are further randomized into three sub-treatments: (i) Unconditional WTP, where WTP is elicited without subjects being informed of the environment norms, (ii) WTP conditional on peer norms, where WTP is elicited after environment norms among their immediate peers (i.e., classmates) are made salient, and (iii) WTP conditional on non-peer norms, where WTP is elicited after environment norms among non-immediate peers (i.e., student population in a different school) are made salient.
Intervention Start Date
2021-01-25
Intervention End Date
2021-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to pay for environmental activities,
Norms regarding environmental behaviours,
Environmental attitudes and behaviours score
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Please refer the analysis plan.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
By a computer.
Randomization Unit
Classroom level randomization into the course. Individual level randomization into norm treatments.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3,000 students
Sample size: planned number of observations
3,000 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control with no norms: 500 students
Control with peer norms: 500 students
Control with non-peer norms: 500 students
Treatment with no norms: 500 students
Treatment with peer norms: 500 students
Treatment with non-peer norms: 500 students
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee, Max Planck Society
IRB Approval Date
2021-01-20
IRB Approval Number
Application No. 2020_30
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