This five-day workshop introduces participants to the theory and practice of experimental methods in the Social Sciences. It provides an overview of prevalent approaches—specifically lab, field, and survey experiments—offering a solid introduction to experimental methodology and the practical skills needed to design, implement, analyse, and present experiments.

See website for more information:
https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/training/show.php?article=14073.php

Dates: 30/06/2025 - 04/07/2025

NCRM, University of Southampton and C-BEAR, University of Southampton
Dr Paul Conway, Dr João Ferreira, Prof Robert Johns, Dr Charlotte Lee, Dr Lala Muradova, Dr Jane Parry, Prof Gerhard Reiner, Dr Jana Sadeh and Dr Paolo Spada

For equestions, contact Jacqui Thorp
Training and Capacity Building Coordinator, National Centre for Research Methods, University of Southampton
Email: jmh6@soton.ac.uk

Cost: £300 for students. £600 for staff working for academic institutions, Research Councils and other recognised research institutions, registered charity organisations and the public sector. £900 for all other participants. All fees include event materials and morning and afternoon refreshments but lunch is not provided. Fees do not include travel and accommodation costs.

This five-day workshop introduces participants to the theory and practice of experimental methods in the Social Sciences. It provides an overview of prevalent approaches—specifically lab, field, and survey experiments—offering a solid introduction to experimental methodology and the practical skills needed to design, implement, analyse, and present experiments.

The course is designed for researchers, PhD students, professionals, and members of public institutions, particularly those new to experimental methods or those with experience in one method (survey, field, or lab) who wish to deepen their knowledge of the others. No prior knowledge of experimental design or statistics is required. The course is also suitable for those looking to commission an experiment through a survey company or other service provider.

The workshop aims to equip participants with the skills to design, implement, analyse, and report experiments, as well as to critically evaluate experimental literature.

Additionally, the workshop will provide a brief overview of service providers for marketing experiments (Facebook, Google), access panels and online marketplaces (Lucid, MTurk, Prolific), and survey providers that support experiments (YouGov, Ipsos). Participants will also be introduced to Qualtrics, Stata, R, and Excel as tools for experimental research with practical exercises.

An interdisciplinary team of faculty members from the Centre for Behavioural, Experimental, and Action Research (C-BEAR) will lead the workshop, drawing on examples from Politics, Economics, Business, and Psychology. Each day, two faculty members from different disciplines will co-teach, fostering a dynamic and dialogic learning environment. The workshop will be interactive and hands-on, incorporating group work and practical exercises.

The workshop will also cover responsible research conduct in experimental studies, including research ethics, pre-registration, and debriefing practices for deceptive research designs.

Course Content

Days 1 and 2 will provide the basic knowledge to design, analyse and present experiments such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs), while Days 3, 4, and 5 will focus on survey, field and laboratory experiments.

Day 1: Foundations in experimental methods
Instructors: Jana Sadeh, and Paolo Spada
Theory
History, definitions and different types of experiments
Advantages and disadvantages of experiments with respect to other research designs
Practice
Implementing a simple experiment
Analysing and presenting the results of a simple experiment

Day 2: Key concepts and essential experimental techniques
Instructors: Jana Sadeh, Paolo Spada and Jane Parry
Theory
The Potential Outcome Model and its assumptions
The ethics of experiments
Practice
What is pre-registration and how to pre-register an experiment?
Replication of a simple experiment.

Day 3: Survey Experiments
Instructors: Rob Johnes, Lala Muradova and Paul Conway
Theory
Introduction to survey experiments
An overview of classic survey experiments
Practice
Designing a Conjoint experiment in Qualtrics
Using Qualtrics to design psychology survey experiments

Day 4: Field Experiments
Instructors: Gerhard Riener and Paolo Spada
Theory
Introduction to Field Experiments
An overview of classic field experiments
Practice
A recent example of project management of a field experiment
Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple field experiment

Day 5: Laboratory Experiments
Instructors: Joao Ferreira and Charlotte Lee
Theory
Introduction to laboratory experiments
An overview of classic lab experiments in economics and psychology
Practice
Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple lab experiment
Using eye-tracking in laboratory experiments

Learning Outcomes -by the end of the course participants will:
Know how to design, pre-register, implement, analyse and present simple experiments.
Be familiar with classic lab, survey, and field experiments.
Be familiar with the ethics and legal requirements for conducting experiments with human subjects.
Be familiar with the statistical methods required for analysing simple experiments.
Be able to use Qualtrics to design survey experiments and analyse simple experiments in STATA and R.
Be able to read critically the literature on experimental methods in a variety of different disciplines.
Know how to interact more effectively and efficiently with service providers that offer A/B testing experiments, surveys experiments, or participants’ panels.
Participants need to bring their own device that can run basic office suites, and free versions of R and Stata. A tablet with a keyboard might also work.