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Mechanical Turk and the “Don’t Know” Option

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Adam R. Brown  and
Jeremy C. Pope Open the ORCID record for Jeremy C. Pope [Opens in a new window]
Adam R. Brown
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
Jeremy C. Pope
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
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Abstract

Luskin and Bullock’s (2011) randomized experiment on live-interview respondents found no evidence that American National Election Studies and Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences respondents hide knowledge behind the “don’t know” (DK) option. We successfully replicated their finding using two online platforms, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and Google Surveys. However, we obtained different results on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). We attribute this difference to MTurkers’ experience with attention checks and other quality-control mechanisms, which condition them to avoid errors. This conditioning leads MTurkers to hide knowledge behind DK in ways not observed on other platforms. Researchers conducting political knowledge experiments or piloting surveys on MTurk should be aware of these differences.

Type
Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 416 - 420
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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