WhatsApp Explorer: A Data Donation Tool To Facilitate Research on WhatsApp

In recent years, reports and anecdotal evidence pointing at the role of WhatsApp in a variety of events, ranging from elections to collective violence, have emerged. While academic research should examine the validity of these claims, obtaining WhatsApp data for research is notably challenging, contrasting with the relative abundance of data from platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where user "information diets" have been extensively studied. This lack of data is particularly problematic since misinformation and hate speech are major concerns in the set of Global South countries in which WhatsApp dominates the market for messaging. To help make research on these questions, and more generally research on WhatsApp, possible, this paper introduces WhatsApp Explorer, a tool designed to enable WhatsApp data collection on a large scale. We discuss protocols for data collection, including potential sampling approaches, and explain why our tool (and adjoining protocol) arguably allow researchers to collect WhatsApp data in an ethical and legal manner, at scale

Voter information campaigns and political accountability: cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials

Voters may be unable to hold politicians to account if they lack basic information about their representatives’ performance. Civil society groups and international donors therefore advocate using voter information campaigns to improve democratic accountability. Yet, are these campaigns effective? Limited replication, measurement heterogeneity, and publication biases may undermine the reliability of published research. We implemented a new approach to cumulative learning, coordinating the design of seven randomized controlled trials to be fielded in six countries by independent research teams. Uncommon for multisite trials in the social sciences, we jointly preregistered a meta-analysis of results in advance of seeing the data. We find no evidence overall that typical, nonpartisan voter information campaigns shape voter behavior, although exploratory and subgroup analyses suggest conditions under which informational campaigns could be more effective. Such null estimated effects are too seldom published, yet they can be critical for scientific progress and cumulative, policy-relevant learning

WhatsApp Explorer: A Data Donation Tool To Facilitate Research on WhatsApp.

In recent years, reports and anecdotal evidence pointing at the role of WhatsApp in a variety of events, ranging from elections to collective violence, have emerged (Arun, 2019). While academic research should examine the validity of these claims, obtaining WhatsApp data for research is notably challenging, contrasting with the relative abundance of data from platforms like Facebook and Twitter, where user “information diets" have been extensively studied (Barberá et al., 2015; Guess, Nagler and Tucker, 2019). This lack of data is particularly problematic since misinformation and hate speech are major concerns in the set of Global South countries in which WhatsApp dominates the market for messaging (Tucker et al., 2018). To help make research on these questions, and more generally research on WhatsApp, possible, this paper introduces WhatsApp Explorer, a tool designed to enable WhatsApp data collection on a large scale. We discuss protocols for data collection, including potential sampling approaches, and explain why our tool (and adjoining protocol) arguably allow researchers to collect WhatsApp data in an ethical and legal manner, at scale

Norms of Deference, Gender, and Belief in Misinformation

Misinformation is now widely acknowledged as a leading social concern, especially since social media offers a fertile ground for its proliferation on a larger scale. As a result, scholars and policymakers have, over the past decade, sought to better understand the psychological mechanisms leading to the expression of belief in dubious claims. Beyond these psychological factors driving misinformation endorsement at the individual level, the endorsement of misinformed beliefs is also conditioned by societal and social norms, including norms around conformity to group-congruent beliefs and social pressure. In the prevailing scholarship concerning susceptibility to misinformation, considerable attention has been directed towards societal divisions and affiliations based on demographic and social stratifications, notably encompassing factors such as race, religion, and party identity. Scholars posit that individuals exhibit a predisposition to consume information that aligns with the interests of their respective social groups. Conversely, scant consideration has been given to a very fundamental social unit within society, the family, and its potential role in fostering and perpetuating misinformed beliefs. Further, work in this area rarely discusses the subject of norms emphasized and enforced within familial frameworks. This study seeks to investigate the influence of familial norms on the endorsement of misinformation. In particular, we focus on a specific category of norms surrounding deference to adults and elders within familial contexts. We aim to highlight how adherence to such norms may engender a propensity to endorse misinformation, and whether experimental manipulations aimed at diminishing the perceived acceptance of these deferential norms can subsequently mitigate the endorsement of misinformation. In societies with strong norms of deference for elders, such social dynamics should be especially relevant to the public endorsement of misperceptions grounded in traditional, religious and/or conservative belief systems, as such beliefs are likely to be perceived as dominant amongst those to whom deference is due. In more patriarchal contexts or those with traditional gender-based values, such attitudes of deference are especially likely among women. In societies in which misinformed beliefs about traditional medicine, home remedies, or superstitions are likely to be passed down from generation to generation within households, it stands to reason that stronger family norms around deference to elders might shape greater endorsement of misinformed beliefs. However, scholarship to date has not explored whether adherence to such norms affects vulnerability to misinformation grounded in traditional belief systems. We accordingly ask two questions. Our first question is observational: what is the descriptive relationship between norms of deference to elders and endorsement to misinformation? Second, in order to better understand the relationship between these norms and endorsement of misinformation, we field an experiment in which we manipulate how prevalent such norms of deference to family elders are perceived to be. This leads us to ask: can reducing the perceived acceptance of norms of deference to elders decrease belief in misinformation and increase willingness to correct elders? To answer these questions we field an in-person survey in Bihar, India with a sample of approximately 6,000 teenagers aged 13 to 18, drawn from 583 villages across the state, and representative of the rural school-going adolescent population in the state. We focus on adolescents, as young adults are vulnerable to norms of deference and respect for elders within the family. More generally, we deem adolescence a crucial time to study these questions. Misinformation studies consistently demonstrate that a factor limiting the effectiveness of treatments is motivated reasoning. This is especially crucial in the Indian case where strong partisans can be resistant to corrective information. We argue that targeting adolescents may overcome these issues: while they have not yet voted, they are actively developing social and political identities; thus, adolescence is a time when attitudes and behaviors may be less crystallized and hence more malleable. To understand the correlation between norms of deference and endorsement of misinformation, our pre-test baseline survey measures attitudes towards collective decision making, deference to adults, and gender norms within the household. Crucially, these attitudes are measured in both adolescents and one parent/guardian present in the household. Consequently, we also measure the (potential) presence of elders during the adolescent's interview, which allows us to shed light on implicit deference and conformity to familial authority. Next, we implement a priming experiment where we assign half the sample to a treatment group and half to control. Treatment group respondents receive information that recent survey data from credible sources demonstrates that young Indians are increasingly engaging in individualistic decision-making and hence that they are decreasingly likely to defer to elders. Our goal with this prime is to provide information that relieves adolescent pressure to adhere to norms of deference towards elders and within the family, by reducing the perceived prevalence or acceptance of this norm. We measure how such manipulation impacts two related outcomes: endorsement of misinformation (as part of a discernment task) and self-reported willingness to correct misinformation when disseminated by an elder. Perceived accuracy of headlines (both true and false) is measured for both our primary respondents (adolescents) as well as one adult present in the household. Respondent recruitment for this study commenced in September 2023 and baseline survey data collection took place October-December 2023. This pre-analysis plan was submitted during data collection (March-April 2024), but prior to any researcher access to the dataset. In addition to this pre-analysis plan, we plan to file additional pre-analyses plans using the same data to (1) study the effects of a conjoint experiment embedded in the same survey as the current study and (2) study the effects of a media literacy RCT of which this sample is part. There may also be additional analyses based on these data in the future

Redistribution in Ranked Systems: Experimental Evidence from India

Ranked systems – societies in which individuals inherit a social rank at birth – exist as a legacy of historic social stratification such as slavery, apartheid, colonialism, aristocracy the mibun system, or the caste system. How and why might such ranked systems prevent the emergence of a pro-redistribution majority? In this project, we argue that ranked structures further prevent the emergence of a pro-redistribution majority because citizens from high-rank groups - including the poor among these groups - reject policies and investments that threaten their group’s relative social status in the hierarchy

Conspiracy Theories and Miracle Cures: Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation in India

Misinformation about COVID-19 is rampant. While false stories of miracle cures might lead people to resist evidence-based policies such as hand washing, rumors that scapegoat minorities have the potential to fuel communal hatred and polarization. How can we correct misinformed beliefs during crises, especially when they are rooted in tradition and social identities? We evaluate a correction strategy to reduce COVID-19 misinformation in India (N=1500). While largely overlooked in the emerging empirical literature on online misinformation, religiosity plays a central role in the popularity of miracle cures and homespun remedies. In addition, beliefs in narratives that scapegoat religious minorities are often touted by religious parties with majoritarian agendas. Accordingly, we posit that belief in misinformation arises from pressures to conform to the ingroup - both religious and partisan - and/or from dissonance between religious priors and new information. We then hypothesize that relieving the dissonance between priors and new information, or relieving conformity pressures caused by shared group identity, can reduce beliefs in misinformation. We test these hypotheses with an online experiment where respondents are shown hypothetical WhatsApp conversations with a misinformation stimulus and targeted correction drawing on a surprising source. Just as when Democrats contradicting Democrats is effective, we use the unlikely source of religious texts to correct religiously-motivated misinformation. We measure the effect of this treatment on perceived accuracy of miracle cures and conspiracy theories in India

Conspiracy Theories and Miracle Cures: Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation in India

We evaluate a correction strategy to reduce COVID-19 misinformation in India through an online experiment (N=1500). We present respondents with corrections from unlikely sources and evaluate the effect of these treatments on perceived accuracy of COVID-19 miracle cures and conspiracy theory headlines

What Circulates on Partisan WhatsApp in India? Insights from an Unusual Dataset

In countries ranging from the Philippines to Brazil, political actors have embraced WhatsApp. In India, WhatsApp groups backed by political parties are suspected of conveying misinformation and/or of circulating hateful content pointed towards minority groups, potentially leading to offline violence. They are also seen as one of the reasons for the dominance of the ruling party (the BJP). Yet, despite this narrative, we so far know littleabout the content shared on these partisan groups nor about the way in which (mis-)informationcirculates on them. In this manuscript, we describe the visual content of 533 closed threads maintained by party workers across the state of Uttar Pradesh, collected over aperiod of 9 months. Manual coding of around 36,000 images allows us to estimate the amount of misinformation/hateful content on one hand, and partisan content on the other. Additional matching of this data with other sources and analyses based on computer vision techniques inturn allows us to evaluate the extent to which the content posted on WhatsApp threads may serve the interests of the ruling party. Analyses suggest that partisan threads contain relatively few hateful or misinformed posts; more surprisingly maybe, most content cannot easily be classified as “partisan”. While much content appears to be religion-related, which may serve an indirect partisan role, the largest share of the content is more easily classifiable as phatic or entertainment related