I forgot to share the #mTurk data quality result that got scooped:

“In late 2020…. Participants from the United States were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, -#CloudResearch, #Prolific, and a #university. One participant source yielded up to 18 times as many low-quality respondents as the other three.”

https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anaf015

#psychology #philosophy #surveyMethods #quantMethods #dataScience #qualityControl

Kiwi documentary and film-maker Costa Botes dies after nearly a decade with cancer

Continued to work until his final weeks His partner of 14 years, Debs Botes, said her husband was…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #after #alongside #and #botes #Cancer #costa #creating #decade #died #dies #documentary #fame #filmmaker #forgotten #found #Jackson #kiwi #living #mockumentary #nearly #NewZealand #NZ #Peter #prolific #silver #with
https://www.newsbeep.com/267214/

Diane Keaton dies aged 79: Colleagues, friends, celebrities mourn Oscar-winning actress

After decades of extensive work, which saw her take lead roles in films from Reds (1981), F…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #79 #actress #aged #Americas #California #Celebrities #colleagues #costars #diane #died #dies #fellow #friends #Hollywood #keaton #looked #most #mourn #NewZealand #NZ #oscarwinning #paying #performer #prolific #Stars #sweetheart #they #tribute #veteran #with
https://www.newsbeep.com/179479/

So, I'm on #prolific, a site where I participate in various surveys for a few bucks. Bit of science in exchange for money, good stuff.
Last night, a survey from the "State university of Florida" popped up - and I screened out right in the consent form and left some feedback about that ONE paragraph.
That was the first time I saw THAT paragraph in a consent form - and there's really NO way I would participate in such a survey, at all, ever.
A Toast to the Prolific ones

I do academic surveys a bit at #Prolific, and it's interesting to see trends that go through them.

One aspect of these surveys is the attention check. To prevent people answering randomly, or bots from completing their surveys, they ask the occasional question with a definite, specific answer.

Often it's done like this:
There are many issues that concern us in the world today. It is also important to follow directions. To show that you're paying attention, please ignore the below question and just answer Green.
What is your favorite color?
(multiple choices)

Sometimes they do this more humorously:
Have you ever been to the planet Mars?
◯ Yes
◯ No

Have you ever attended your own funeral?
◯ Yes
◯ No

New #surveyMethods paper replicates and extends differences in #dataQuality, attention, naivety, decision style, etc. by
- online #research recruitment platform (#mTurk, #Prolific, #Qualtrics, #Pollfish)
- device (#mobile v. #desktop)
- person's incentive

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-025-02618-1

Evaluating mobile-based data collection for crowdsourcing behavioral research - Behavior Research Methods

Online crowdsourcing platforms such as MTurk and Prolific have revolutionized how researchers recruit human participants. However, since these platforms primarily recruit computer-based respondents, they risk not reaching respondents who may have exclusive access or spend more time on mobile devices that are more widely available. Additionally, there have been concerns that respondents who heavily utilize such platforms with the incentive to earn an income provide lower-quality responses. Therefore, we conducted two studies by collecting data from the popular MTurk and Prolific platforms, Pollfish, a self-proclaimed mobile-first crowdsourcing platform, and the Qualtrics audience panel. By distributing the same study across these platforms, we examine data quality and factors that may affect it. In contrast to MTurk and Prolific, most Pollfish and Qualtrics respondents were mobile-based. Using an attentiveness composite score we constructed, we find mobile-based responses comparable with computer-based responses, demonstrating that mobile devices are suitable for crowdsourcing behavioral research. However, platforms differ significantly in attentiveness, which is also affected by factors such as the respondents’ incentive for completing the survey, their activity before engaging, environmental distractions, and having recently completed a similar study. Further, we find that a stronger system 1 thinking is associated with lower levels of attentiveness and acts as a mediator between some of the factors explored, including the device used and attentiveness. In addition, we raise a concern that most MTurk users can pass frequently used attention checks but fail less utilized measures, such as the infrequency scale.

SpringerLink

Doing #research on #crowdsourcing platforms is the closest thing to working in #customer #service as an academic. You reject a submission for failing attention checks, speeding through a 20-minute study in 90 seconds, and submitting absolute nonsense? Now they’re in your inbox demanding payment, insisting they “definitely read everything”, and arguing that your study is “literally broken” (you do realise I can see your data, right?).

Bestie, I’m an unpaid #PhD #student working with carefully budgeted research funding. I do not have the energy to fight over £1,50. I just want to wrap up this study, analyse my depressing data, and go home to lie face down on the floor for an unspecified amount of time. Please, leave me alone. #Prolific #SundayRant