In 2020, Netflix released an 8-episode series called "100 Humans" in which 100 (American) humans from a variety of ages and social groups participate in a series of studies. It's a gold mine of examples for critical thinking in research methods. You'll find examples of posttest-only, pretest-posttest designs, HARKing, ethics, and more. Most of the …
Category: Chapter 07; Sampling
Random sampling in action for public health
Why is random sampling important when trying to estimate antibody levels in the population? Photo: © Eugene Lu/Shutterstock Here is a timely example of random sampling in action. Watch this 2-minute video about the CDC's project in Atlanta (produced by NPR). It explains how nurses are visiting about 500 people in the Atlanta metropolitan area …
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Screen time (again!)
The effect of screen time on well-being is likely to depend on moderators such as what's on the screen, when it's used, and who's using it. Photo: Eric Nathan / Alamy Stock Photo I can't promise this is the last article on screen time research that I will blog about. But this long-form piece by …
Question wording matters
Collecting accurate data in a poll is difficult business. Many of us focus on the sampling strategies of polling organizations, and rightly so: External validity depends on whether we include "cell phone only" numbers in our samples, how we account for different rates of responding across certain groups, and so on. However, this post reminds …
Why strive for large samples?
When the general public critiques research, I often hear them say that the samples are "too small." It's true that sample sizes (N) in psychology research should be large. One of the outcomes of the so-called "replication crisis" is that large samples are more and more important in psychology. But why? A common misconception--held by …
Online resource: Video about random sampling
Pew Research is my favorite polling resource, partly because they ask such interesting questions, and partly because they are so transparent about sharing their methodology. (For examples, see their Methods page or click on the full Report Materials for a study they did on gun ownership in America.) They make their sampling techniques and question …
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Many students don’t know when news is fake
The researchers asked students if this element probably linked to real news or fake news.What's the clue that tells you this story is probably not "real news"? Fake news is in the (real) news lately. Whether you're looking at Facebook, Buzzfeed, or your online newspaper, companies may try to clickbait you into reading a story that's …
What ends up on the Yelp Top 100 list?
What construct and external validity considerations affect Yelp ratings, like this 4-star review of a restaurant near my campus? Screenshot from Yelp website (by author) In this interesting piece, Slate writer Will Oremus asks why the top-rated restaurants on Yelp are places that "nobody has ever heard of." He explains that the top 10 rated …
Cell phones only–whom should polls call?
My favorite polling organization, Pew Research, has reported that people have become more and more likely to have "cell phones only," with no landline phones. Here is a graph showing the percentage of American adults who have cell-phone only households: Scott Keeter and Kyley McGeeney. “Pew Research will call more cellphones in 2015.” Pew Research …
Recent Poll on Americans and Fast Food
Gallup released the results of some polling questions on Americans' use of fast food. According to the poll, most Americans eat fast food once a month or more. Click over to the poll results to see how many Americans eat fast food at least once per week. Despite eating fast food fairly often, Americans do …