Language and pro-environmental behavior

Last registered on November 01, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Language and pro-environmental behavior
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007636
Initial registration date
May 05, 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
May 05, 2021, 11:24 AM EDT

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

Last updated
November 01, 2021, 7:18 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Bern

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Bern
PI Affiliation
University of Bern

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-01-15
End date
2022-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Languages with a strong future-time reference (FTR) require speakers to grammatically mark future events (e.g. in English with “will” or “going to”), while others with a weak FTR do not (e.g. German). Previous research suggests that strong FTR languages make the future feel more distant than the present, implying that more short-term-oriented behavior occurs in areas such as saving and health. The aim of this research project is to examine the effect of the linguistic structure on individual pro-environmental behavior (PEB). In a between-subject online experiment, we will randomize the instructional language of the incentivized, environmental decision task among bilingual people who are fluent in the strong FTR language English and the weak FTR language German. We will elicit subjects’ pro-environmental behavior using a new incentivized decision task. This approach allows us to investigate whether there is a causal effect of a language’s FTR on individual PEB.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Essl, Andrea, Manuel Suter and Frauke von Bieberstein. 2021. "Language and pro-environmental behavior." AEA RCT Registry. November 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7636-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In a between-subject design, we will randomize the instructional language of the incentivized, environmental decision task among bilingual people who are fluent in the strong FTR language English and the weak FTR language German. In the strong FTR treatment, the environmental decision task will be described in English, using “will” to mark future events and to describe the impact of decisions on the environment. In the weak FTR treatment, subjects will receive a German description of the environmental decision task and no future time references will be used, i.e., all future events will be described in the present tense.
Intervention Start Date
2021-05-10
Intervention End Date
2022-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Pro-environmental behavior measured by the amount of money invested in the environmental project
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Pro-environmental behavioral intentions using a self-report Likert-type scale.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In a between-subject online experiment, we will randomize the instructional language of the incentivized, environmental decision task among bilingual people who are fluent in the strong FTR language English and the weak FTR language German. We will elicit subjects’ pro-environmental behavior using a new incentivized decision task in which participants can decide between keeping money or investing money to an environmental project. Thus, this task consists of a decision tradeoff between own financial and environmental rewards. In the strong FTR treatment, the environmental decision task will be described in English, using “will” to mark future events and to describe the impact of decisions on the environment. In the weak FTR treatment, subjects will receive a German description of the environmental decision task and no future time references will be used. After the incentivized decision task, participants will complete a series of self-report scales on pro-environmental intentions, beliefs in climate change, pro-environmental attitudes and answer demographic questions. In addition, all participants will be asked to take a language proficiency test for English and German.
We hypothesize that individuals (in particular with medium to strong pro-environmental attitudes) behave more pro-environmentally friendly in the weak-FTR treatment (German) than in the strong-FTR treatment (English).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
computer (online experiment)
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The number of participants planned for the experiment is 824 people completing the study. We advertise for a minimum of 900 participants to take into account individuals excluded due to the restrictions mentioned in the analysis plan.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The number of participants planned for the experiment is 824 people completing the study. We advertise for a minimum of 900 participants to take into account individuals excluded due to the restrictions in the analysis plan.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About 450 participants per treatment (about 412 participants per treatment after excluding participants as described in the analysis plan)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Based on a two-sided Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, an error probability of 0.05, and a power of 0.80, we require about 412 participants per treatment to detect an effect of Cohen’s d of 0.2.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Business Administration, Economics and Social Sciences of the University of Bern
IRB Approval Date
2021-05-04
IRB Approval Number
132021
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