Faunalytics Study Replication Guide
It’s no secret that we take research seriously. However, as a U.S.-based organization, much of our work has focused on creating impact in this country. Meanwhile, international animal advocates need research specific to their region — especially throughout the Global South, which is underfunded and understudied compared to the North.
To help fill this research gap, around half of our upcoming studies for 2024 will investigate trends in the Global South. We also want to make it as easy as possible for animal advocates and academics to replicate our existing research in different contexts. In this blog, we explain how to do that.
How To Replicate Our Work In Other Regions
Faunalytics is committed to transparency — all of our studies are posted on our website and on the Open Science Framework (including our materials, raw data, and coding).
But still, that’s a ton of pages to work through! To streamline the process, we’ve suggested several studies that we think advocates might like to replicate in other countries, how we conducted the research, and how you can get started. This isn’t an exhaustive list or a detailed manual, but we hope it’s a helpful starting point.
For each study, we also list which of our office hours you can attend for extra help. There you can ask questions, review what you’ve been working on, or problem-solve any barriers you’ve run into. For even more guidance, you can also review our research advice section here.
A final note: Some of our studies involved tens of thousands of dollars, years of work, and advanced training — we are a research organization, after all! But research is adaptable, so don’t worry if you don’t have all of these resources. You may be able to modify our studies into a simpler, easier-to-run format. We give suggestions on how to do that, too.
Different Strokes For Different Folks: Comparing U.S. Groups’ Openness To Pro-Animal Actions
Important Links:
Key Research Question: How open are different demographic groups to various pro-animal actions? This includes diet change, political actions, pro-animal donations, and more.
Region We Studied: U.S.
Who It May Benefit: Organizations that use consumer data, as the questions can be adapted to your needs.
Sample: We recruited over 5,700 people through Prolific using a quota-based sampling system.
Method: We asked participants 18 pro-animal questions that measure how open they are to actions like signing a petition. We also asked around 20 demographic and identity-related questions (e.g., gender and their concern about climate change).
Materials:
What You’ll Need To Change: You may need to modify the action and demographic questions to make them more relevant to your region.
Difficulty:
- Quota-based sampling requires knowledge of survey administration and data analysis.
- Our analyses require knowledge of ordinal logistic regressions and Spearman correlations, data weighting, and data visualization (optional).
- Replication of the results graphing tool isn’t necessary but would require familiarity with R, Shiny, HTML, and CSS.
Participant Fees: About $2 per participant for a total of around $12,000 USD.
Time Investment: If working in R, you’ll likely need 1-2 months of full-time work to modify the survey instrument, run the survey, modify the pre-existing code, and analyze the results. Analyzing the results in another software will extend the timeline.
For help, attend Zach’s Office Hours.
Support For Farmed Animal Welfare Legislation In Ten Key U.S. States
Important links:
- Key Findings and Recommendations
- Full Report Request Form — Note that accessing this study requires a request form to ensure it doesn’t accidentally benefit industrial animal agriculture organizations.
Key Research Question: Do residents of ten key U.S. states support or oppose different pieces of legislation that would benefit farmed animals?
Region We Studied: 10 U.S. states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin
Who It May Benefit: Organizations working on legislation related to farmed animals (e.g., cage-free laws, factory farm bans and environmental regulations, alternative protein research & development, plant-based procurement, and farm transitions)
Sample: We recruited approximately 1,000 people in each state (10,000 total) with a quota-based sampling system to ensure that each sample was representative of the state’s demographics.
Method: Participants were given seven existing or hypothetical pieces of legislation (each with a supporting and opposing argument) and asked on a five-point scale how much they’d support or oppose the legislation. We randomized the presentation of supporting and opposing arguments, which requires survey branching.
Materials:
- The full survey we used
- Please contact us for the code and data, as we are keeping it confidential to animal advocacy organizations.
What You’ll Need To Change: You will probably need to modify the pieces of legislation and demographic questions from our survey to make them more relevant to your country or region. You will also need to know your region’s demographic breakdowns.
Difficulty:
- Quota-based sampling requires knowledge of survey administration and data analysis.
- Our analyses require knowledge of ordinal logistic regressions, data weighting, and data visualization (optional).
- The analysis can be done with a tool like R.
Participant Fees: About $2 per person for a total of around $20,000 USD.
Time Investment: If working in R, you’ll likely need 2-3 weeks of full-time work to modify the survey instrument, run the survey, modify the pre-existing code, and analyze the results. Analyzing the results in another software will require writing code from scratch which will extend the timeline.
For help, attend Andrea’s Office Hours.
Planting Seeds: The Impact Of Diet & Different Animal Advocacy Tactics
Important Links:
Key Research Question: How effective are different types of animal advocacy tactics in changing people’s behavior (e.g., their animal product consumption) and their attitudes towards animals?
Region We Studied: U.S.
Who It May Benefit: Anyone interested in learning how different animal advocacy tactics impact the general public (e.g., news articles, meat-free challenges, documentaries, protests, social media, and so on)
Sample: We recruited over 4,000 total U.S. adults, with minimum sample size targets for Black and Latinx populations. The population was also weighted against U.S. demographics for age, race, gender, income, and region.
Method: This study was done in two parts:
- Part One: We used a survey to examine people’s past experiences with animal advocacy (retrospective)
- Part Two: We conducted a study where we showed people videos, articles, or images of advocacy and then measured how this changed their diet and beliefs afterward (experimental)
Materials:
- The full survey we used for part one
- Our code in R format for part one
What You’ll Need To Change: We feel the experimental study (part two) would be difficult for a non-research organization to replicate, so we strongly recommend adapting the survey only (part one). You may need to establish demographic quotas for your country or region.
Difficulty:
- Requires knowledge of data analysis and statistics, including t-tests, data weighting, and data visualization (optional).
- This study is suitable for researchers who are comfortable doing data analysis using software such as R.
Participant Fees: About $2 per person for a total around $8,000 USD.
Time Investment: If working in R, you’ll likely need 2-3 weeks of full-time work to modify the survey instrument, run the survey, modify the pre-existing code, and analyze the results. Analyzing the results in another software will require writing code from scratch, which will extend the timeline.
For help, attend Andrea’s Office Hours.
The State Of Animal Advocacy In The U.S. & Canada: Experiences & Turnover
Important Links:
Key Research Question: Why do animal advocates leave the movement, and how can we improve advocate retention?
Regions We Studied: U.S. and Canada
Who It May Benefit: All animal advocacy organizations
Sample: We surveyed 161 people using a respondent-driven sampling method (RDS), but we recommend using a more basic recruitment approach (e.g., a general snowball sampling method). That said, it is important not to survey only people in your immediate network or social media followers, as that may cause bias in your results.
Method: The survey asked respondents about their job role, organization characteristics, work-life balance, demographics, and more.
Materials:
- The survey, analysis code, report, and other materials are available on the Open Science Framework.
- Note: We have not made the dataset available due to concerns about participant identifiability for this sensitive topic.
What You’ll Need To Change: It is difficult to find a representative sample of all demographic groups within the animal protection movement. We recommend expanding this study to a larger region beyond a single country (e.g., Latin America, Southeast Asia) to recruit enough participants. We also recommend cutting out parts of the survey that are less important to you, as in hindsight, the length likely made it more challenging to get enough participants.
Difficulty:
- The hardest part of this study was getting enough people to respond to the survey, as advocates are busy people.
- The survey also involved substantial branching, which requires specialized software (e.g., Google Forms can’t do it).
- The most basic data analysis that could be useful would involve calculating averages and percentages, while a full analysis requires statistical training and specialized software like SPSS or R.
Participant Fees: We paid between $5 and $20 per participant and would recommend not going lower than $5, even with a shorter survey (unless you are studying a region with a substantially lower cost of living). This puts the total cost in the range of several hundred dollars, which is cheaper than most general population surveys.
Time Investment: This study will likely take about one month to prepare (including shortening it and adapting it for your needs), another 1-4 months to collect data, and one month to analyze the results.
For help, attend any researcher’s Office Hours.
Study Of Current And Former Vegans And Vegetarians (Veg*ns)
Important Links:
Key Research Questions: How do current and former veg*ns differ in their motivations and characteristics? Why do some people lapse in diet change?
Region We Studied: U.S.
Who It May Benefit: Any organization working on individual or systemic diet change
Sample: We recruited over 11,000 U.S. adults, but we focused on the roughly 1,400 people who identified as current and former veg*ns.
Method: We surveyed current and former veg*ns about their motivations, reasons for lapsing if applicable, and other factors.
Materials:
- The study methodology, data in CSV and SPSS format, and all reports are available on the Open Science Framework.
What You’ll Need To Change: We needed a very large sample so we could find enough current and former veg*ns without advertising the study to them directly. That’s important because sometimes survey participants will lie (e.g., saying they’re a current or former veg*n when they’re not) to get access to a paid survey.
These days, more survey providers have “pre-screening” data about potential participants — you may be able to request a sample made up of only current and former veg*ns for your study if they have that information available. Be aware, though, that depending on where you’re located, it may be challenging to get a large enough sample size because of how few current and former veg*ns exist. We recommend asking your provider about this before proceeding with the study.
Difficulty:
- The survey involved substantial branching, which requires specialized software (e.g., Google Forms can’t do it).
- The most basic data analysis that could be useful would involve calculating percentages, while a full analysis requires statistical training and specialized software like SPSS or R.
Participant Fees: If it were conducted today, this study would likely cost roughly $10,000 in participant fees. If you work with a panel company to recruit a sample of current and former veg*ns, it may cost $8 – $10 or more per person because the company is doing the screening work for you. Another option is to recruit a general population sample yourself and include a diet screening question to exclude people who have never been veg*n. This would involve paying a small amount of money to a much larger number of participants — potentially 50 cents to up to 10,000 people — and then a larger amount (e.g., $2 per person) to those who are eligible to complete the full survey. By doing the screening work yourself, the latter option may save you some money, but recruiting such a specific sample is expensive either way.
Time Investment: We expect this study to take about one month to adapt and prepare, one month to collect enough data (given the potential challenge of recruiting enough participants), and one month to analyze the results.
For help, attend any researcher’s Office Hours.
The People Who Support Animal Causes: Descriptive Results
Important Links:
Key Research Question: Who are the people donating to animal causes, and what are their motivations?
Region We Studied: U.S.
Who it may benefit: Organizations that wish to understand the donor profiles of people in their country or region.
Sample: We surveyed a representative sample of about 9,000 U.S. adults, but only the roughly 1,000 people who had donated to animal causes were allowed to complete the full survey.
Method: We used an online survey that asked about donors’ characteristics, cause and charity preferences, reasons for donating, and more.
Materials:
- The full survey (via Qualtrics)
- Here is our data code for analysis: data cleaning, weighting, full sample analysis, and animal donor analysis
What You’ll Need To Change: If you aren’t interested in understanding what percentage of donors in your country or region are interested in animal causes, you can consider skipping the larger sample and recruiting only people who have donated to animal causes. However, be wary of advertising paid studies to “people who have donated to animal causes only,” as some people may lie in order to receive the payment. If working with a survey provider, we recommend asking whether they can pre-screen participants for this instead of putting it in your survey ad.
Difficulty:
- The survey involved branching, which requires specialized software (e.g., Google Forms can’t do it).
- The most basic data analysis that could be useful would involve calculating percentages, while a full analysis requires statistical training and specialized software like SPSS or R.
Participant Fees: This study would likely cost upward of $10,000 in participant costs today, for the same reasons outlined in our Study Of Current And Former Vegans And Vegetarians (Veg*ns) described above. You can either screen participants yourself by paying a small amount to a very large number of participants or a large amount to a panel company to screen for you. Please refer to the previous study for details.
Time Investment: We expect this study to take around one month to adapt and prepare, one month to collect data (given the potential challenge of recruiting enough participants), and one month to analyze the results.
For help, attend any researcher’s Office Hours.
Finding Participants In Other Countries
Many surveys that involve public polling find participants through an online “panel” – everyday people from a variety of demographics who have signed up to participate in paid research. The quality and cost of these panels can vary substantially, and some are specific to certain countries.
Below is a short list of providers that we have used previously. Unfortunately, given our own geographic focus and limitations, they may be more accessible to Westerners and those who speak English. We are working to improve our knowledge of options in other regions.
How It Works
All of the full-service options will connect you with a client sales representative to discuss rates. You can negotiate those rates and should request quotes from multiple companies.
For a 5- to 10-minute survey, expect to pay $1 to $2 per participant on Prolific and $4-5 or more on other platforms. For studies with a small number of eligible participants (e.g., vegans or people who donate to animal causes), rates can sometimes reach $8 or more per participant.
Please note that Faunalytics cannot vouch for the quality of any of these services, though we can help you select questions to ask if you attend our office hours.
What To Look For In A Good Provider
We look for the following criteria when choosing panel providers:
- They have measures in place to detect bots and scammers, and they remove them from their platform. In other words, they won’t just promise to replace low-quality data in your survey.
- They provide a sample that is reasonably representative of a population. Probability-based samples provide the best representativeness but are very expensive. Quota-based sampling is a common method that is not as representative but is more affordable. We use quota-based sampling often, and it can be applied in many situations.
- They are willing to specify (and guarantee) a reasonable level of representativeness for key demographic categories. You should ask how close, percentage-wise, they can guarantee their samples are to population percentages. You should also ask if they will weight the data to correct for any mismatch.
- They pay participants a fair wage for their country.
- They can tell you the limitations of their panel, such as low representation of rural participants, low-income people, particular ethnicities, and so on. For any online panel, you should also ask about Internet penetration in the country you’re studying. In other words, what percentage of the population has Internet access, and which demographic groups tend not to have it? Anyone without Internet access will obviously be excluded from an online data collection method.
To create your survey with branching paths, you will need to use an advanced survey instrument. We use Qualtrics, but more affordable options include SurveyMonkey or Zoho.
With this guide, the right budget, and a dedicated staff member, you should be in a good position to replicate our work. And don’t forget, we’re here to help you along the way!
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