Table 1 Average treatment effects on exit

From: Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash

 

Switch in preference

Switch to lower preference

Switch in category

Switch to lower misinformation

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Company (T1)

0.13***

0.13***

0.08***

0.08***

0.05***

0.05***

1.03**

0.69∗

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.48)

(0.38)

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

0.031

0.075

Platform (T2)

0.03***

0.03**

0.01

0.01

0.02*

0.01

0.52

0.23

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.54)

(0.48)

0.010

0.012

0.114

0.118

0.076

0.130

0.335

0.629

Company and platform (T3)

0.10***

0.10***

0.06***

0.06***

0.04***

0.04***

0.69

0.28

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.49)

(0.38)

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

0.157

0.452

Company ranking (T4)

0.08***

0.08***

0.06***

0.06***

0.03***

0.02**

1.57***

0.95**

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.01)

(0.50)

(0.39)

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

<0.001

0.006

0.015

0.002

0.015

Controls

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

Control group mean

0.04

0.04

0.02

0.02

0.03

0.03

0.65

0.65

Observations

4039

4039

4039

4039

4039

4039

430

430

  1. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results for each of the four treatment groups (T1, T2, T3 and T4) in our sample. Columns are numbered along the top. In columns 1 and 2, the dependent variable is a binary variable that takes the value 1 when a participant switches their gift card choice from their top choice company after receiving the information treatment and is zero otherwise (n = 4,039). In columns 3 and 4, the dependent variable is a binary variable that takes the value 1 when a participant switches their gift card choice from their top choice company to a company they prefer less (as measured by how participants assign weights to each of the 6 gift card choices that must all sum up to 100) and is zero otherwise (n = 4,039). In columns 5 and 6, the dependent variable is a binary variable that takes the value 1 when a participant switches their gift card choice across product categories (for example, from ride-sharing gift cards to a fast food gift card) and is zero otherwise (n = 4,039). Columns 7 and 8 show regressions for the sub-sample of participants who switch their gift card choice; the dependent variable is the difference in the intensity of advertising misinformation between the participant’s top choice gift card company and the company they finally choose after receiving the information treatment (n = 430). We report summary statistics and demonstrate that our treatment groups are balanced across observable characteristics in Supplementary Table 5. Results for the sample including inattentive respondents are shown in Supplementary Table 9. No adjustments were made for multiple comparisons. Robust standard errors are shown in parentheses. P values derived from two-sided t-tests are reported below the standard errors. The remaining pairwise P values are reported in Supplementary Table 6. *P < 0.1, **P < 0.05, ***P < 0.01.
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