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Addressing Public Health Needs by Promoting Prosocial Behaviors Through Social Media

Last registered on August 09, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Addressing Public Health Needs by Promoting Prosocial Behaviors Through Social Media
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008041
Initial registration date
August 06, 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
August 09, 2021, 5:58 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Brazil
Region
Country
India
Region
Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Stephen Harrell
Affiliation
UC Berkeley
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-09-01
End date
2019-10-01
Keywords
Behavior, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Social media has the potential to encourage behaviors that improve the health and well-being of society at an unprecedented scale. We examine the impact of Facebook’s blood donation tool on voluntary blood donation in three large countries. Quasi-experimental evidence in the United States indicates that the tool caused an increase in blood donation among all donors (+4.0% [95% CI: .04% to 8.0%]), and particularly among new blood donors (+18.9% [95% CI: 4.7% to 33.1%]) during the tool’s three-month staggered rollout. Longitudinal evidence from Brazil and India indicates that the share of donors who both received a message from the tool and stated they were influenced by Facebook to donate blood increased from 0% to 14.1% [95% CI: 12.1% to 16.2%] in the first year. These findings demonstrate that social media can support public health by encouraging offline prosocial behavior at scale.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Harrell, Stephen. 2021. "Addressing Public Health Needs by Promoting Prosocial Behaviors Through Social Media." AEA RCT Registry. August 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8041-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-09-01
Intervention End Date
2019-10-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Number of donations from all donors and from new donors
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In 2019, Facebook planned to launch the blood donation tool in the United States. The United States presented a unique measurement opportunity in that there was enough consolidation and coordination within the sector to implement a staggered (partly randomized) rollout of the blood donation tool by geographic location. Furthermore, the blood banks in the United States had a standardized method of collecting ongoing donation data already in place. These attributes make it much more feasible to implement a quasi-randomized (i.e., staggered difference in differences) experimental design in the United States. As with many product launches, however, there were some go-to-market parameters that undermined pure randomization and a select number of cities were launched before the randomized design for the purposes of quality control and to facilitate critical aspects of Facebook’s partnership with blood banks.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
State level randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
50
Sample size: planned number of observations
333 blood donation facilities
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
196 treatment group blood donation facilities and 137 control group blood donation facilities
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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