Saturday, May 26, 2012
Crowdsourcing and Psychology
I don't know if any one else will find this particularly interesting, but me being the nerd I am was looking through some scientific information and stumbled upon this Article from the economist. The article is very interesting talking about Psychological studies and college students. Along with some interesting websites. Thought I'd share, please share thoughts.
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I read this, too. Running experiments at a research 1 university are complex and timeconsuming. One study I ran at UNC-CH took a year to develop and run and analyze--and that was before we actually wrote up the results and sent out the paper for review/publication. Crowdsourcing as a way to gather data would certainly speed up the process and I'm not convinced that it would actually skew the data since I would argue that the UNC-CH students are already WEIRD.
ReplyDeleteCrowdsourcing as a research methodology may be more useful and relevant when the focus of the experiment requires a diverse global perspective. The online participants will not necessarily be a representation of the WEIRD’s; on the contrary, the crowdsourcing online workers may not be rich and/or live in a democratic society and as a result the research findings will reflect these differences in opinion, principles and moral upbringing. Globalization has made us more similar in the way we, human beings behave; however socio-economic and cultural differences still persist.
ReplyDeleteObviously the study subject is critical to understanding how WEIRD attributes effect the outcome but if the studies are used by marketers targeting WEIRD people, which considering the audience for many of the studies, shouldn't be all that different. I can't image too many non-western uneducated backwater poor non-democratic people are reading these studies, and how many of these people are being targeted by companies looking to sell stuff to them.
ReplyDeleteWho are we talking about here?...North Korea?, some ex-USSR territories?, Afghanistan?, Somalia?, Congo?, Liberia?, Haiti?
I want to better clarify what I'm getting at here: I heard a scientist interviewed last year on NPR's Science Friday. I believe he was working off a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide immunization clinics in Africa. The scientist had a theory that the extreme conditions of malnourishment coupled with continual disease infections was having a devastating effect on populations because if a body's already reduced nutrient resources had to frequently go to fighting off diseases then brain development would have to be effected. Malnourishment alone would cause this but he hypothesized that chronic childhood diseases would have an even greater effect on children’s brain development. As a result, those children that survive will become adults with brains that may be permanently diminished.
DeleteTo me it's obvious that you can see the physical effects of chronic malnourishment...the North Koreans are 5” to 6” inches shorter than their South Korean neighbors after several generations of Kim family rule. I believe there must be mental effects too.
So, to me, I'm trying to say that poor countries suffering from chronic malnourishment and the other problems associated with a poor or absent educational system, subsistence survival, and poverty are naturally not going to yield the same results as E.I.R. counterparts because their environment will have likely made them fundamentally different. Further, their motivations are also more focused on the basics of survival rather than the luxuries of happiness.