RUI: Judgment and Decision Making on the Internet

Csu Fullerton Auxiliary Services Corporation, Fullerton CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract *** 9986436 Michael H. Birnbaum The Internet provides a new domain of human experience. Estimates of the growth rate of penetration of the Internet among the population shows that its use is growing faster than previous innovations (telephones, radio, and television) that have already become nearly universal in industrialized nations. The majority of the U.S. population will soon be using the Internet for communication, commercial transactions, and entertainment. The Internet also provides an exciting new medium for the conduct of behavioral research. By means of Internet research, it is now possible to accomplish in a few weeks what used to require six months or a year. Because the World Wide Web makes available an extremely heterogeneous, international sample, it becomes possible to examine the generality of laboratory research to demographic groups that have rarely been studied in previous research. This allows one to investigate if conclusions from laboratory research are unique to college sophomores tested in university labs or if they have external validity to a larger population tested under more naturalistic conditions. Are the cognitive processes used by the general population on the Internet the same as those used by students in university laboratories? There are two aspects to this question that need to be distinguished. The first is that the people tested are different, so any difference in results may be due to differences in education, age, wealth, or other demographic differences among the groups tested. The second aspect is that the Internet medium itself may itself induce different modes of thought, reasoning, judgment, and decision-making. This research explore these questions. This is a proposal to continue and expand an on-going program of research on the Internet. In addition to experiments on judgment and decision-making on the Internet with 6,000 participants, I propose to conduct surveys of behavioral scientists about the Internet and to create tools that will make it easier for students and newcomers to Internet research to adapt their studies to this new medium. By comparing lab and Web studies, the validity of both procedures can be tested. By comparing the results for different demographic groups, it is possible to examine the linkage between such characteristics and research findings. If behavioral research conducted via the Internet lives up to its potential, then the process of facilitating the transfer of such research to the Internet can result in acceleration of the scientific enterprise. ***