C-BEAR Summer School - Introduction to Experimental Methods in Social Sciences

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.

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.

Payment using the Online Store can only be completed via Visa and Mastercard Credit/Debit Card or PayPal.  AMEX is not accepted.
If you have not previously created an account for the Online Store, you will need to create an account to make a booking.

Course Description

Day 1

Theory

• History, definitions and different types of experiments
• Advantages and disadvantages of experiments with respect to other research designs
• The ethics of experiments

Practice

• Implementing a simple experiment
• Analysing and presenting the results of a simple experiment

Day 2

Theory

• The Potential Outcome Model and its assumptions

Practice

• What is pre-registration and how to pre-register an experiment?
• Replication of a simple experiment.

Day 3 – Laboratory experiments

Theory

• Introduction to laboratory experiments
• An overview of classic lab experiments

Practice

• An overview of software (e.g. Z-tree, O-tree) and service providers (e.g. Mturk, Prolific) for lab experiments
• Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple lab experiment

Day 4 – Survey experiments

• Introduction to survey experiments
• An overview of classic survey experiments

Practice

• Designing a Conjoint experiment in Qualtrics
• Replicating the analysis and presentation of a simple conjoint experiment

Day 5 – Field experiments

• 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