'Study 3 - Flexibility and pro-environmental intentions' (AsPredicted #81,832)
Author(s) Kevin Winter (IWM Tübingen) - kevin.winter@uni-hohenheim.de
Pre-registered on 2021/12/03 01:05 (PT)
1) Have any data been collected for this study already? No, no data have been collected for this study yet.
2) What's the main question being asked or hypothesis being tested in this study? Question: Does a flexibility mindset (induced via subtractive counterfactual questions in a political speech) influence the relationship between social identification with environmental activists and collective action regarding pro-environmental behavior?
Hypothesis: A political speech that contains subtractive counterfactual questions (vs. political speech with call to action and no speech) weakens the relationship between social identification with environmental activists and collective action regarding pro-environmental behavior.
3) Describe the key dependent variable(s) specifying how they will be measured. Main DV: pro-environmental collective action intentions (10 items)
4) How many and which conditions will participants be assigned to? Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three between-subjects conditions: political speech with subtractive counterfactual questions vs. political speech with call to action vs. control condition (no speech). Participants in the counterfactuals and call to action condition will read a speech about environment protection. Depending on experimental condition this speech contains either subtractive counterfactual questions or call to action. In the control condition the participants are not presented with a speech.
5) Specify exactly which analyses you will conduct to examine the main question/hypothesis. A linear multiple regression analysis will be performed to test the prediction that the subtractive counterfactuals weaken the relationship between social identification and collective action. Social identification will be mean-centered prior to analysis. Experimental condition will be contrast-coded (focal contrast: +2 political speech with subtractive counterfactual questions, -1 political speech with call to action, -1 control condition; residual contrast: 0 political speech with subtractive counterfactual questions, +1 political speech with call to action, -1 control condition). Both contrasts, mean-centered social identification, as well as the resulting interaction terms will be included as predictors of collective action intentions. The hypothesis would be confirmed by a significant interaction of the focal contrast and social identification. In addition, a significant positive main effect of the focal contrast among those low in social identification (-1 SD) should occur.
6) Describe exactly how outliers will be defined and handled, and your precise rule(s) for excluding observations. Requirements for participation:
- fluent in German (language-sensitive materials)
- aged over 18 years
- no psychology students
- successful attention check (1 item embedded in the collective action scale)
After excluding participants according to these criteria, data will be checked for outliers using studentized deleted residuals (SDR) from the multiple regression described under #5. Participants with an absolute SDR > 2.59 will be regarded as statistical outliers.
7) How many observations will be collected or what will determine sample size? No need to justify decision, but be precise about exactly how the number will be determined. a-priori power analysis with g*power (Faul et al., 2009): f2=0.02 (small effect) for a single regression coefficient in a linear multiple regression with 5 predictors; alpha .05; power .80; ideal N=395 (around 130 per condition)
8) Anything else you would like to pre-register? (e.g., secondary analyses, variables collected for exploratory purposes, unusual analyses planned?) Exploratory measures:
- Mental simulation elicited by the speech (3 items; not assessed in the control condition)
- Collective goal efficacy (4 items)
- Budget allocation task as measure of pro-environmental behavior (amount of money given to pro-environmental initiatives)
