Leafleting study

Initial research

Animal rights is a neglected cause and there is little evidence-based knowledge out there about how one can effectively work on it. We were inspired by studies conducted on the impact of leafleting and the impact of online videos to initiate a study of our own. Our intention was to replicate the previous studies in a more rigorous way. 


The full study is available here. We collaborated with the organization Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE).

Hypothesis

We expected the study to find around a 2% change in dietary habits. This would be similar to the previously conducted study and personal anecdotes from people who leaflet. 

Methodology

This experiment was conducted at several colleges and universities across the USA and Canada. People were randomly handed either a flyer explaining the treatment of farm animals and the difference they can make by altering their diet, or a flyer explaining puppy mills and what they can do to fight them. 

Two months later, volunteers did a survey at the same spot on the same day of the week as they had handed out the flyers. People were told it was a survey about the diets of college students. At the end of the survey we asked them if they had received a flyer and whether it had changed their diet. 

The resulting sample size was smaller than ideal, but because we had a control group, it was possible to estimate the effectiveness of the intervention. Full details here.

Results

ACE states that "this study provides weak evidence that leafleting is effective in convincing college students to stop eating red meat and poultry." More information can be found here and here. A charity science team member performed a re-analysis which found similar but weaker conclusions. 

Conclusion

We did not find the data to be as compelling as ACE did and found some major concerns with the findings discussed here. We think that at this time, more research needs to be done before we should support interventions in this area.