Participants at Your Fingertips

Abstract

The literature suggests students gain important skills when directly involved with faculty in research. However, students at smaller institutions are often faced with limited research opportunities and faculty members are faced with limited participant-pools, funding, and space to perform research. Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) may provide a solution to many of these problems. MTurk provides an online human participant-pool, along with tools to build experiments, and it allows data to be collected quickly and inexpensively. In this study of narrative fiction and empathy, data was collected using the traditional, laboratory-based approach, and on MTurk using identical measures and protocols. Results indicated MTurk data exhibits comparable reliability, gender and ethnicity composition to data collected in the laboratory. Two important differences emerged: MTurk participants were 10 years older, on average, and they demonstrated higher scores on trait measures of empathy and state measures of involvement into the story presented in the study. A brief user's guide to MTurk is presented that caters to first-time users. Finally, common pitfalls and their solutions are presented with the hope that faculty and students can begin doing research on MTurk immediately.

Bias against Disconfirmatory Evidence in a large Nonclinical Sample: Associations with Schizotypy and Delusional Beliefs

“…These individuals were unselected except that they were required to live in the United States and to have had their work approved (vs. rejected) in 95% of the jobs (HITs) they completed previously on MTurk. A high percentage of approved HITs indicates that the participant, in the judgement of other researchers, has reliably completed jobs in the past (Johnson & Borden, 2012). With these requirements, research has shown that MTurk data is comparable to that collected in the laboratory (Johnson & Borden, 2012).…”

Reading Narrative Fiction Reduces Arab-Muslim Prejudice and Offers a Safe Haven From Intergroup Anxiety

“…Through an online platform called Amazon's Mechanical Turk, 115 participants volunteered to complete the study and were compensated $1.50 (Men = 38; age, M = 34.22 years, SD = 11.55 years; 85% White; full narrative, n = 38, condensed narrative, n = 38, non-narrative condition, n = 39). The sample consisted of participants from 30 states, 10 religious affiliations (one reporting Islam), and 63% were employed full or part time, 12% student, 4% retired, and 21% other (see Buhrmester, Kwang, &Gosling, 2011 andJohnson &Borden, 2012 for validity of MTurk data).…”

Up From the Ashes: Age and Gender Effects on Post-Traumatic Growth in Bereavement

“…MTurk is an online platform in which adults register to complete various tasks, such as proofreading, indexing, and research surveys. Research data collected through MTurk and other on-line sites are comparable in quality to those gathered using other recruitment and survey methods (Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, 2011;Johnson & Borden, 2012). All survey completers received $2 for their participation.…”