Replication Data for: How Research-Practice Partnerships Can Strengthen Experiments and Build Trust in American Elections

To address the challenge of declining trust in American democracy in the wake of the 2020 presidential contest, election officials across the nation have undertaken innovative public information campaigns. Academic studies demonstrate that exposure to these messages can increase public confidence but do not show which types of messages are most effective. We report a set of three experimental studies that harness research-practice partnerships with these officials to vary one key aspect of an informational message while holding other features constant. The pre- registered experiments: 1. Compare the impact of messages conveyed through earned versus paid media, 2. Ask whether Americans are more responsive to messages from federal or from state election officials, 3. Explore the impact of videos and static visuals. Taken together, this set of collaborative experiments demonstrates the unique opportunity that research-practice partnerships allow to test real-world messages through strong causal inference techniques, providing rigorous evidence that can inform practice on the front lines of American democracy.

为应对2020年美国总统选举后美国民主信任度下滑的挑战，全美各地选举官员已开展创新性公共信息宣传活动。现有学术研究表明，接触此类宣传信息可提升公众对民主的信任度，但尚未明确何种类型的宣传信息最为有效。本研究报告三项实验研究，通过与上述选举官员建立研究-实践合作（research-practice partnerships）模式，在保持宣传信息其余特征恒定的前提下，仅调整信息的某一关键维度。本次预注册（pre-registered）实验包含三项子研究：1. 对比无偿媒体（earned media）与付费媒体（paid media）传递的宣传信息的影响效果；2. 探究美国民众对联邦选举官员与州选举官员发布的宣传信息的响应度差异；3. 分析视频与静态视觉素材（static visuals）的宣传效果。综合来看，这一系列合作实验展现了研究-实践合作模式的独特机遇：可借助严谨的因果推断（causal inference）技术检验真实场景中的宣传信息，从而为美国民主建设一线的实践提供可靠的实证依据。