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Cancelled: Conformity or Silence?

Last registered on April 05, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Cancelled: Conformity or Silence?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007905
Initial registration date
July 01, 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 01, 2021, 8:28 PM EDT

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

Last updated
April 05, 2023, 11:52 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University College Dublin

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Wilfrid Laurier University

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-08-19
End date
2021-08-26
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Social norms, social image concerns, and social stigma are all factors which can shape the public expression of opinion. With increased political polarization and the rise of social media, many prominent voices have recently argued that some of these social norms have become too strict and that fear of social backlash has led to a stifling of freedom of expression. We study how perceived social pressure affects the public expression of opinion. How sensitive are individuals to current concerns of social backlash? To what extent may public views differ from private opinion? Do these dynamics vary depending on individual characteristics like political affiliation or social media use? To investigate these questions, we first outline a simple model that formalizes these ideas and helps to frame our study. We highlight how social pressure can affect public opinion either through a change in publicly stated views towards a norm (conformity) or by inducing self-censorship (silence). We then propose to conduct an online survey experiment that allows us to disentangle these two effects and to better understand these social dynamics in the context of two current debates: Gender and LGBTQ issues, and Race.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Morales, Juan S. and Margaret Samahita. 2023. "Cancelled: Conformity or Silence?." AEA RCT Registry. April 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7905-4.2
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our intervention is priming participants with a short text about "cancel culture" which includes two examples of individuals who have experienced negative backlash on social media as a result of their posts.
Intervention Start Date
2021-08-19
Intervention End Date
2021-08-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
First, we elicit participants' stated opinion on two controversial statements about gender and race (1-7 strongly disagree - strongly agree). Second, we elicit participants' willingness to publish their stated opinion on a public social media site anonymously and with their name (willing/unwilling). For a randomly selected topic, we also elicit participants' willingness to pay for the publication (how many lottery tickets participant is willing to give up/accept).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants are randomised into 1 of 5 treatments:
T1: prime text, elicitation of stated opinion, control text, elicitation of willingness to publish
T2: control text, elicitation of stated opinion, primetext, elicitation of willingness to publish
T3: control text, elicitation of stated opinion, control text, elicitation of willingness to publish
T4: prime text, elicitation of stated opinion AND elicitation of willingness to publish
T5: control text, elicitation of stated opinion AND elicitation of willingness to publish
Experimental Design Details
See pre-analysis plan.
Randomization Method
Randomisation is done on the Qualtrics program.
Randomization Unit
Individuals are randomised into 1 of the 5 treatments. We allocate 27.5% of participants to each of T1-2, and 15% to each of T3-5. This enables us to compare behavior when primed at the start vs later with greater power.

Individuals are also randomised into either the Gender or Race topic. While we show both statements to elicit stated opinion and willingness to publish, we only ask one of them for the questions about willingness to pay for publication and perceived norm.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
900 individuals (300 each of self-reported Republicans, Democrats and Independents)
Sample size: planned number of observations
900 individuals (300 each of self-reported Republicans, Democrats and Independents)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
27.5% in T1-2, 15% in T3-5
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University College Dublin
IRB Approval Date
2021-06-15
IRB Approval Number
HS-E-21-43-Samahita
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-Registration 3.pdf

MD5: 42d5081f458cbc83bba655184dd7f12e

SHA1: 0024dea48a3c528399acadb00cebd28ca41576bc

Uploaded At: March 29, 2023

Pre-Analysis Plan

MD5: 452c52d04fb10ac08ab82e7f599e17f9

SHA1: 86219bafefdc6b8718451d7852fe25d740e49380

Uploaded At: August 18, 2021

Pre-Registration 4.pdf

MD5: 1cbbb9e50c78aa3b7450d7ffc622eed8

SHA1: 3bdc0e95fb6cfd55080b2da3d080aedadbe65c82

Uploaded At: April 05, 2023

Pre-Registration+2.pdf

MD5: 738edfd0b379b55ef4a9d4edebdd90c7

SHA1: 5f5f049f74ccadd34fa9b6cc8e271e762f440bf1

Uploaded At: November 10, 2021

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