Taming human subjects : researchers' strategies for coping with vagaries in social science experiments

Ting, Carol and Montgomery, Martin (2023) Taming human subjects : researchers' strategies for coping with vagaries in social science experiments. Social Epistemology. pp. 1-17. ISSN 1464-5297 (https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2023.2177128)

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Abstract

The experimental method is designed to secure the reliable attribution of causal relationships by means of controlled comparison across conditions. Doing so, however, depends upon the reduction of uncertainties and inconsistencies in the process of comparison; and this poses particularly significant challenges for the behavioral and social sciences because they work with human subjects, whose malleability and complexity often interact in unexpected ways with experimental manipulations, thus resulting in unpredictable behavior. Drawing on the Science and Technology Studies perspective and one of our authors' experiences in experimental work, this paper examines how experimental social scientists manage to establish objectivity and standardization in the face of vagaries arising from working with human subjects. In identifying experimental researchers' solutions to this challenge, we draw on methodological discussions among applied social scientists as naturally occurring data, through which we show how some seemingly mundane practices play essential roles in extracting patterns out of otherwise unpredictable behaviors in the lab. Closely examining such strategies, we reveal the inherent instabilities in the experimental method when adopted in the social sciences and discuss their methodological implications. In conclusion, we make tentative suggestions for escaping the kinds of methodological impasses which we have identified.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:84918
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    27 February 2023
    Published
    27 February 2023
    Published Online
    2 February 2023
    Accepted
    Subjects:Social Sciences
    Department:Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS)
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:28 Mar 2023 11:04
    Last modified:26 Apr 2024 00:59
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/84918
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