C-BEAR SUMMER SCHOOL - Introduction to Experimental Methods in Social Sciences: Surveys, Laboratory and Field Experiments

Description:

This five-day workshop introduces participants to the theory and practice of experimental methods in the Social Sciences. It provides an overview of prevalent approaches—specifically lab, field, and survey experiments—offering a solid introduction to experimental methodology and the practical skills needed to design, implement, analyse, and present experiments.

The course is designed for researchers, PhD students, professionals, and members of public institutions, particularly those new to experimental methods or those with experience in one method (survey, field, or lab) who wish to deepen their knowledge of the others. No prior knowledge of experimental design or statistics is required. The course is also suitable for those looking to commission an experiment through a survey company or other service provider.

The workshop aims to equip participants with the skills to design, implement, analyse, and report experiments, as well as to critically evaluate experimental literature.

Additionally, the workshop will provide a brief overview of service providers for marketing experiments (Facebook, Google), access panels and online marketplaces (Lucid, MTurk, Prolific), and survey providers that support experiments (YouGov, Ipsos). Participants will also be introduced to Qualtrics, Stata, R, and Excel as tools for experimental research with practical exercises.

An interdisciplinary team of faculty members from the Centre for Behavioural, Experimental, and Action Research (C-BEAR) will lead the workshop, drawing on examples from Politics, Economics, Business, and Psychology. Each day, two faculty members from different disciplines will co-teach, fostering a dynamic and dialogic learning environment. The workshop will be interactive and hands-on, incorporating group work and practical exercises.

The workshop will also cover responsible research conduct in experimental studies, including research ethics, pre-registration, and debriefing practices for deceptive research designs.

Course Content

Days 1 and 2  will provide the basic knowledge to design, analyse and present experiments such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), while Days 3, 4, and 5 will focus on survey, field and laboratory experiments.

Day 1: Foundations in experimental methods  

Instructors:  Jana Sadeh, and Paolo Spada

Theory

• History, definitions and different types of experiments
• Advantages and disadvantages of experiments with respect to other research designs

Practice

• Implementing a simple experiment
• Analysing and presenting the results of a simple experiment

Day 2: Key concepts and essential experimental techniques  

Instructors:  Jana Sadeh, Paolo Spada and Jane Parry

Theory

• The Potential Outcome Model and its assumptions
• The ethics of experiments

Practice

• What is pre-registration and how to pre-register an experiment?
• Replication of a simple experiment.

Day 3: Survey Experiments  

Instructors:  Rob Johnes, Lala Muradova and Paul Conway

Theory

• Introduction to survey experiments
• An overview of classic survey experiments

Practice

• Designing a Conjoint experiment in Qualtrics
• Using Qualtrics to design psychology survey experiments

Day 4: Field Experiments 

Instructors: Gerhard Riener and Paolo Spada 

Theory

• Introduction to Field Experiments
• An overview of classic field experiments

Practice

• A recent example of project management of a field experiment
• Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple field experiment

Day 5: Laboratory Experiments 

Instructors: Joao Ferreira and Charlotte Lee 

Theory

• Introduction to laboratory experiments
• An overview of classic lab experiments in economics and psychology

Practice

• Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple lab experiment
• Using eye-tracking in laboratory experiments

Learning Outcomes -by the end of the course participants will:

• Know how to design, pre-register, implement, analyse and present simple experiments.
• Be familiar with classic lab, survey, and field experiments.
• Be familiar with the ethics and legal requirements for conducting experiments with human subjects.
• Be familiar with the statistical methods required for analysing simple experiments.
• Be able to use Qualtrics to design survey experiments and analyse simple experiments in STATA and R.
• Be able to read critically the literature on experimental methods in a variety of different disciplines.
• Know how to interact more effectively and efficiently with service providers that offer A/B testing experiments, surveys experiments, or participants’ panels.

Participants need to bring their own device that can run basic office suites, and free versions of R and Stata. A tablet with a keyboard might also work. 

PLEASE NOTE REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED BUT PARTICIPANTS WILL NEED TO BRING/BUY THEIR OWN LUNCH.

Cost:

£300 for students. £600 for staff working for academic institutions, Research Councils and other recognised research institutions, registered charity organisations and the public sector. £900 for all other participants. All fees include event materials and morning and afternoon refreshments but lunch is not provided. Fees do not include travel and accommodation costs. In the event of cancellation by the delegate a full refund of the course fee is available up to two weeks prior to the course. NO refunds are available after this date. If it is no longer possible to run a course due to circumstances beyond its control, NCRM reserves the right to cancel the course at its sole discretion at any time prior to the event. In this event every effort will be made to reschedule the course. If this is not possible or the new date is inconvenient a full refund of the course fee will be given. NCRM shall not be liable for any costs, losses or expenses that may be incurred as a result of its cancellation of a course, including but not limited to any travel or accommodation costs.

Website and registration:

Region:

South East

Keywords:

Experimental design, Laboratory studies, Randomized Control Trials (RCT), Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research, Hypothesis testing research, Intervention studies, Qualitative Interviewing, Qualitative interview design, Focus groups, Quantitative Data Handling and Data Analysis, NVivo, R, Stata, Literature reviews, Interactive data visualisation, Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination (other), Field Experiments, Survey Experiments, Lab experiments, Conjoint Experiments, Audit Experiments, List Experiments, Online Experiments, Experimental economics, Behavioural economics, Political Psychology

Related publications and presentations from our eprints archive:

Experimental design
Laboratory studies
Randomized Control Trials (RCT)
Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Research
Hypothesis testing research
Intervention studies
Qualitative Interviewing
Qualitative interview design
Focus groups
Quantitative Data Handling and Data Analysis
NVivo
R
Stata
Literature reviews
Interactive data visualisation
Research Skills, Communication and Dissemination (other)

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