This research project is intended to uncover the dynamics of
interactions and behavior in online social spaces through the
application of new interactive survey methods to a large and diverse
pool of internet users. We recruit participants to fill out a survey on
LimeSurvey, an open source survey tool, which combines decision making
involving money with substantive questions about attitudes and
practices. Experience with prior efforts at field-based behavioral
studies suggests that there is much to be learned from careful
observation of behavior in controlled settings in the field, in this
case, online, relative to the standard approach of behavioral
observation of mostly student populations in universities.
The ultimate objective of the study is to contribute to the development
of a field of human interactions systems design aimed to improve the
design and organization of online social spaces. We will combine the
behavioral outputs of the study with the rich data publicly available
from the web on social interactions. We will then interpret this
aggregate data in light of the work on social software design and the
rich qualitative work that anthropologists and sociologists have done to study the dynamics of online interactions.
It should take no more than 25 minutes for participants to complete the
study. Participating is easy and intuitive. While helping to advance
research, participants can earn a significant amount of money (up to
$50). If they do not want to keep the money, participants can choose to
donate it to the International Committee of the Red Cross. All
participants are paid online via a PayPal account. It is not necessary
to have a PayPal account prior to one’s participation to participate in
the study.
In the spirit of letting the public benefit widely from our findings, we will release all research outputs of this work under an open access
license, and make the data as freely available as will be consistent
with preserving the privacy of participants.
RESEARCHERS:
- Yann Algan, Sciences Po, Department of Economics
- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School and Berkman Center for Internet and Society
- Mayo Fuster Morell, European University Institute and Berkman Center for Internet & Society
- Jérôme Hergueux, Sciences Po, Department of Economics and Berkman Center for Internet & Society
For any request, comment or question please feel free to contact us at: