Experimental Design Details
In Phase 1, we use a petition with close to 800,000 signatures (Apoya a los defensores de la Tierra), we will have the following treatments (i.e. informative messages before the actual wording of the petition):
Treatment 1.1: a message saying that “more than 700,000 individuals have already signed the petition”.
Treatment 1.2: a message saying that “more than 799,000 individuals have already signed the petition”.
Treatment 1.3: a message saying that “less than 100,000 signatures are left to reach 800,000”
Treatment 1.4: a message saying that “less than 1,000 signatures are left to reach 800,000”
Treatment 1.5: a message saying that “less than 100,000 signatures are left to reach 800,000. If we reach them we will keep this ad running for another week”
Treatment 1.6: a message saying that “less than 100,000 signatures are left to reach 800,000. If we reach them we will keep this ad running for another week”
In Phase 2, we exploit a petition having more than 4 million signatures ( Mega Petición por un Mundo 100% Limpio) we will have the following treatments (i.e. informative messages before the actual wording of the petition):
Treatment 2.1 (2.1a): a message saying that “more than x (X) thousand individuals have already signed the petition”.
Treatment 2.2 (2.2.a): a message saying that “more than x (X) thousand individuals have already signed the petition, more than 10% of individuals in a survey are confident about online petitions improving their quality of life”.
Treatment 2.3 (2.3a): a message saying that “more than x (X) thousand individuals have already signed the petition, almost 90% of individuals in a survey are confident about online petitions improving their quality of life”.
In the above treatments X and x are numbers that are smaller than the true number of signatures, with X>x. The data on attitudes towards petitions comes from a prior survey implemented with University students, this information will be included at the end of the ad. X=4,000,000, x=4,000
Data we hope to collect
For each subject, we will observe whether she has engaged with the ad, whether she clicked on the link to sign the petition, her demographic characteristics, and, potentially, whether she has reacted to the Facebook ad (that is, left a like, a comment, or shared the post).
Variables that we would be interested in obtaining from the individuals who see the ad:
1. What is your date of birth? (dd / mm / yyyy):
2. What gender do you identify with?
- Female
- Male
- Other
3. In politics we usually speak about Left and Right. On a scale where 1 is the Left and 5 is the Right. Where would you place yourself? 1 2 3 4 5
4. What is your place of residence (City, Country)?
5. Would you say that most people can be trusted or that one is never careful enough in dealing with others?
- Most people can be trusted
- One is never careful enough in dealing with others
Target population
We hope to deliver these announcements to Facebook users in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina.
Ideally, each ad should be sent to between 8,000-10,000 users, the ad should stay active for maximum 7 days