Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers

Objective Australian researchers interested in studying psychological phenomena using Australian samples have a limited range of reliable sampling options, often limited to undergraduate participant pools and convenience samples subject to well‐known limitations. To expand the range of sampling opti...

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Main Authors: Damien L. Crone, Lisa A. Williams
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2017-03-01
Series:Australian Journal of Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12110
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author Damien L. Crone
Lisa A. Williams
author_facet Damien L. Crone
Lisa A. Williams
author_sort Damien L. Crone
collection DOAJ
description Objective Australian researchers interested in studying psychological phenomena using Australian samples have a limited range of reliable sampling options, often limited to undergraduate participant pools and convenience samples subject to well‐known limitations. To expand the range of sampling options available, we attempted to validate the crowdsourcing platform, Microworkers, as a viable tool for collecting data from Australian participants. Method Across two studies, 122 Australian participants were recruited via Microworkers to complete a demographic survey (Studies 1 and 2), personality questionnaire (Study 2), and a standard decision‐making task designed to elicit a framing effect (Study 2). Results Providing a first indication of the viability of Microworkers as a recruitment platform for Australian participants by Australian researchers, we were successful in acquiring our desired sample size. Moreover, the recruited Microworkers samples were demographically diverse (in a similar fashion to Internet samples in general), and produced valid psychological data. Conclusion Overall, these results provide promising preliminary evidence for Microworkers as a viable platform for the recruitment of Australian participants for psychological research, and for Australian researchers interested in crowdsourced participants more generally.
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spelling doaj.art-f1bbdcc08af54642ba22a3e1092645072023-09-19T08:54:45ZengTaylor & Francis GroupAustralian Journal of Psychology0004-95301742-95362017-03-01691394710.1111/ajpy.1211012098827Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of MicroworkersDamien L. Crone0Lisa A. Williams1University of MelbourneUniversity of New South WalesObjective Australian researchers interested in studying psychological phenomena using Australian samples have a limited range of reliable sampling options, often limited to undergraduate participant pools and convenience samples subject to well‐known limitations. To expand the range of sampling options available, we attempted to validate the crowdsourcing platform, Microworkers, as a viable tool for collecting data from Australian participants. Method Across two studies, 122 Australian participants were recruited via Microworkers to complete a demographic survey (Studies 1 and 2), personality questionnaire (Study 2), and a standard decision‐making task designed to elicit a framing effect (Study 2). Results Providing a first indication of the viability of Microworkers as a recruitment platform for Australian participants by Australian researchers, we were successful in acquiring our desired sample size. Moreover, the recruited Microworkers samples were demographically diverse (in a similar fashion to Internet samples in general), and produced valid psychological data. Conclusion Overall, these results provide promising preliminary evidence for Microworkers as a viable platform for the recruitment of Australian participants for psychological research, and for Australian researchers interested in crowdsourced participants more generally.http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12110amazon mechanical turkaustraliainternet‐based data collectionmethodologymicroworkerssampling
spellingShingle Damien L. Crone
Lisa A. Williams
Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
Australian Journal of Psychology
amazon mechanical turk
australia
internet‐based data collection
methodology
microworkers
sampling
title Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
title_full Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
title_fullStr Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
title_full_unstemmed Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
title_short Crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in Australia: A test of Microworkers
title_sort crowdsourcing participants for psychological research in australia a test of microworkers
topic amazon mechanical turk
australia
internet‐based data collection
methodology
microworkers
sampling
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12110
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