Field Experiments on Social Media

Studying online behavior can further understanding of misinformation and political psychology. Mosleh and colleagues discuseds the strengths, weaknesses, and ethical constraints of two approaches to studying online behavior: hybrid lab-field experiments and field experiments. In hybrid lab-field studies, researchers can control and randomize participants’ exposure to social-media content in the lab and then, in the field, survey participants’ attitudes and beliefs as well as observe their online behavior. In field experiments, researchers can use the online environment to manipulate social media exposure (e.g., via private messages or public posts) without disclosing their research and then observe the effects of the manipulation on participants’ online behavior.

Robert Goldstone of the Percepts and Concepts Laboratory at Indiana University and editor of the APS journal Current Directions in Psychological Science interviews Mohsen Mosleh, Lecturer at the University of Exeter Business School, a Fellow at Alan Turing Institute, and a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan School of Management.