Data protection regulations in the EU, Brasil, or California give users the right to access the information online platforms hold about them. Data donation studies capitalize on this legal requirement by asking survey respondents to donate their data at the end of a survey. This sequential approach assumes that respondents' prior engagement with the survey enhances their willingness to donate data. However, this approach often results in modest donation rates, typically not exceeding 25%. An alternative approach is to directly frame the study in the context of a data donation task, thus increasing the commitment to provide additional data at the end of the survey. In this study, we conduct two split-sample experiments involving over 2,000 participants from a German online access panel. Panel members are invited to a study framed (1) as a web survey introducing data donation only once respondents completed the questionnaire or (2) as a data donation study from the beginning. When asked for their willingness to donate, we also randomly vary the request including (1) an intrinsic motivational appeal emphasizing that participants can learn about their online platform behavior, (2) an extrinsic motivational appeal emphasizing that participants help research by donating their data, and (3) no appeal. We will ask for data donations from YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Our hypotheses posit that while initial participation rates will be higher for the survey framing than for the data donation framing, participants' willingness to donate will be significantly higher for those in the data donation framing. Further introducing motivational appeals should increase the willingness to donate compared to having no such emphasis, especially when introducing an intrinsic motivational appeal. We will also examine how these experiments influences sample composition, specifically regarding participants’ technical skills, platform usage, privacy concerns, and their trust in science and a platform.
