Unintended Consequences of Health Information Campaigns: A Field Experiment in Cairo

Marcela Ibanez, Ghida Karbala

Can health information campaigns unintentionally generate cognitive load and affect the behavioral preferences of beneficiaries? We study this question by implementing a field experiment with a representative sample of adult individuals residing in Cairo, Egypt. Participants in a door-to-door survey watched videos about a commonly spread and highly contagious disease affecting children or a placebo video. Consistent with dual-process theories, we find that the health awareness video impaired cognition of the targeted population in terms of lower scores on cognitive ability and fluid intelligence tests than the control group.  The results show that participants who experienced financial and health stress in their daily life were mostly affected by the treatment.  The findings emphasize the need to consider cognitive taxation when designing informational campaigns and to determine target beneficiaries.