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Series:   Elements in Experimental Political Science

Abstraction in Experimental Design

Testing the Tradeoffs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Ryan Brutger ,
Joshua D. Kertzer ,
Jonathan Renshon  and
Chagai M. Weiss
Ryan Brutger
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Joshua D. Kertzer
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Jonathan Renshon
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Chagai M. Weiss
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison

Summary

Political scientists designing experiments often face the question of how abstract or detailed their experimental stimuli should be. Typically, this question is framed in terms of tradeoffs relating to experimental control and generalizability: the more context introduced into studies, the less control, and the more difficulty generalizing the results. Yet, we have reason to question this tradeoff, and there is relatively little systematic evidence to rely on when calibrating the degree of abstraction in studies. We make two contributions. First, we provide a theoretical framework which identifies and considers the consequences of three dimensions of abstraction in experimental design: situational hypotheticality, actor identity, and contextual detail. Second, we field a range of survey experiments, varying these levels of abstraction. We find that situational hypotheticality does not substantively change experimental results, but increased contextual detail dampens treatment effects and the salience of actor identities moderates results in specific situations.
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Keywords

experimentsabstractabstractiongeneralizabilitysurvey experiments
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Experimental Political Science
Online ISBN: 9781108999533
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 27 October 2022

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