Introductory description

Is the gender wage gap caused by discrimination? What explains differences in voter turnout? Which form of education and development aid is effective? What affects the movement of visitors in an art gallery? Experiments are the “gold standard” for uncovering causal effect and they were rediscovered in social science research and the humanities in the last decades. The results of experimental research give valuable insights for theory testing and programme evaluation.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Why do we need experimental research?

• This session will introduce experimental methods and refer to many applications in social
  science research and the humanities.
  Week 2: What makes a study an experiment?
• This session will review key concepts of experimental research such as causal inference
  and randomization.
  Week 3: Why are there so many types of experiments?
• This session will introduce laboratory experiments and field experiments and reflect on
  their advantages, pitfalls, and problems.
  Week 4: Why are there even more types of experiments?
• This session will introduce natural experiments as well as related types and reflect on their
  advantages, pitfalls, and problems.
  Week 5: How can experiments be integrated into surveys?
• This session will introduce different types of survey experiments and reflect on their
  advantages, pitfalls, and problems. Further, students will present their own ideas about
  conducting an experiment.
  Week 6: Reading Week
  Week 7: How can we ‘walk the experiment talk’?
• Students will conduct fieldwork by carrying out their own experimental research. They will
  be supervised by the lecturer.
  Week 8: What does my experimental data tell me?
• Students will continue with the fieldwork and analyse the data. They will be supervised by the lecturer.
  Week 9: What can I tell you about my experiment?
• In this session students will present their experimental studies.
  Week 10: What did we learn?
• In this session students will reflect on the overall course content.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• (1) to familiarise students with different types of experiments;
• (2) to raise students’ awareness of the advantages, pitfalls, and problems of experimental methods used in social science and humanities research;
• (3) to equip students with the skills to understand and undertake experimental research.

Indicative reading list

Andreoni, J. and R. Petrie. (2008). “Beauty, Gender and Stereotypes: Evidence from Laboratory
Experiments.” Journal of Economic Psychology 29: 73-93.
Auspurg, K. and T. Hinz, T. (2014). Factorial survey experiments. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Auspurg, K., Hinz, T. and C. Sauer (2017). “Why should women get less? Evidence on the gender
pay gap from multifactorial survey experiments.” American Sociological Review 82: 179–210.
Baldassarri, D. and M. Abascal (2017). “Field Experiments Across the Social Sciences.” Annual
Review of Sociology 43: 41-73.
Barrera, D. and B. Simpson (2012). “Much Ado About Deception: Consequences of Deceiving
Research Participants in the Social Sciences.” Sociological Methods & Research 41:383-413
Bower, G.H. (1976). “Experiments on story understanding and recall.” Quarterly Journal of
Experimental Psychology 28: 511-534.
Bourdeau, L. and J.-C. Chebat (2001). “An Empirical Study of the Effects of the Design of the
Display Galleries of an Art Gallery on the Movement of Visitors.” Museum Management and
Curatorship 19: 63-73.
Field, A. and G. Hole. (2003). How to Design and Report Experiments. Sage Publications.
Gerber, A.S. and D.P. Green. (2000). “The Effects of Canvassing, Direct Mail, and Telephone
Contact on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment.” American Political Science Review 94: 653-63.
Gerber, A. and D. Green. (2012). Field Experiments: Design, Analysis and Interpretation W.W.
Norton.
Hainmueller, J., Hangartner, D. and Yamamoto, T. (2015). “Validating vignette and conjoint survey
experiments against real-world behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
112(8): 2395-2400.
Holland, P.W. (1986). “Statistics and Causal Inference.” Journal of the American Statistical
Association 81: 945-960.
Hulstijn, J.H. (1992). Retention of Inferred and Given Word Meanings: Experiments in Incidental
Vocabulary Learning. Pp. 113-125, in: P.J. L. Arnaud, and H. Béjoint (Eds.), Vocabulary and
Applied Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan.
Keizer, K., S. Lindenberg, and L. Steg (2008). “The Spreading of Disorder.” Science 322: 1681-1685.
McEwan, P.J. (2015). “Improving Learning in Primary Schools of Developing Countries: A Meta-
Analysis of Randomized Experiments.” Review of Educational Research 85 (3): 353-394.
Miller, D. (1992). “Distributive Justice: What the People Think?” Ethics 102: 555-593.
Mutz, D. (2011). Population-Based Survey Experiments. Princeton University Press.
Pager, D. (2007). “The Use of Field Experiments for Studies of Employment Discrimination:
Contributions, Critiques, and Directions for the Future”. Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Sciences 609 (Janurary):104-133.
Przepiorka, W. and J. Berger (2016). “The sanctioning dilemma: A quasi-experiment on social
norm enforcement in the train.” European Sociological Review 32(3): 439-451.
Sekhon, J.S. and R. Titiunik. (2012). “When Natural Experiments Are Neither Natural Nor Experiments.” American Political Science Review, 106 (1): 35-57.
Shadish, W., T. Cook and D. Campbell. (2002). Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference. Wadsworth Cenage Learning.
Singer, E. and F.J. Levine (2003). “Protection of Human Subjects of Research: Recent Developments and Future Prospects for the Social Sciences.” Public Opinion Quarterly 67: 148-164.
Smith, V. (1994). “Economics in the Laboratory.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8: 113-131.
Tilcsik A. (2011). “Pride and prejudice: employment discrimination against openly gay men in the United States.” American Journal of Sociology 117:586–626.
Webb, S. (2007). “The Effects of Repetition on Vocabulary Knowledge.” Applied Linguistics 28(1): 46–65.

Research element

Some fieldwork required in teaching

Interdisciplinary

Interdisciplinary module for students in the social sciences and humanities

Opportunities for interdisciplinary learning are communicated to students

Subject specific skills

Systematic understanding, coherent and detailed knowledge of key concepts of experimental research in the social sciences and humanities

Ability to describe and comment on the advantages and pitfalls of experimental methods

Ability to manage and conduct experimental research

Communication of research findings and limitations related to experiments in social science research and the humanities

Transferable skills

By developing and conducting own projects ...

the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility,

decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts in field settings.