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7 - Field Experiments

from Part II - The Practice of Experimentation in Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2024

Davide Barrera
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy
Klarita Gërxhani
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Bernhard Kittel
Affiliation:
Universität Wien, Austria
Luis Miller
Affiliation:
Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Spanish National Research Council
Tobias Wolbring
Affiliation:
School of Business, Economics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
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Summary

Field experiments have a long tradition in some areas of the social and behavioral sciences and have become increasingly popular in sociology. Field experiments are staged in "natural" research settings where individuals usually interact in everyday life and regularly complete the task under investigation. The implementation in the field is the core feature distinguishing the approach from laboratory experiments. It is also one of the major reasons why researchers use field experiments; they allow incorporating social context, investigating subjects under "natural" conditions, and collecting unobtrusive measures of behavior. However, these advantages of field experiments come at the price of reduced control. In contrast to the controlled setting of the laboratory, many factors can influence the outcome but are not under the experimenter’s control and are often hard to measure in the field. Using field experiments on the broken windows theory, the strengths and potential pitfalls of experimenting in the field are illustrated. The chapter also covers the nascent area of digital field experiments, which share key features with other types of experiments but offer exciting new ways to study social behavior by enabling the collection large-scale data with fine-grained and unobtrusive behavioral measures at relatively low variable costs.

Type
Chapter
Information
Experimental Sociology
Outline of a Scientific Field
, pp. 81 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Field Experiments
  • Davide Barrera, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy, Klarita Gërxhani, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Bernhard Kittel, Universität Wien, Austria, Luis Miller, Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Spanish National Research Council, Tobias Wolbring, School of Business, Economics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Book: Experimental Sociology
  • Online publication: 23 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009099653.010
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  • Field Experiments
  • Davide Barrera, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy, Klarita Gërxhani, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Bernhard Kittel, Universität Wien, Austria, Luis Miller, Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Spanish National Research Council, Tobias Wolbring, School of Business, Economics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Book: Experimental Sociology
  • Online publication: 23 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009099653.010
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Field Experiments
  • Davide Barrera, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy, Klarita Gërxhani, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Bernhard Kittel, Universität Wien, Austria, Luis Miller, Institute of Public Goods and Policies, Spanish National Research Council, Tobias Wolbring, School of Business, Economics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg
  • Book: Experimental Sociology
  • Online publication: 23 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009099653.010
Available formats
×