What is an experiment?

Experiments in social science use the same logic that guides experiments in biology or engineering.

Experimental research is the strongest method for testing causal relationships.

Experiments are the method that most clearly satisfies the three conditions needed to show causality:

• temporal order (A happened before B),
• association (when A goes up, B goes up), and
• no alternative explanations (there is no third cause - a source of spurious correlation - that gives rise to this correlation).

Why are true experiments so powerful?

• Hardest part of proving causality is ‘ruling out other explanations’ (i.e. ruling out other theories). * Randomisation into control or treatment makes two groups IDENTICAL.
• Any differences after treatment MUST be due to treatment. It rules out ALL other explanations*

(*) so long as you didn’t screw up the experiment.

What types of questions are experiments suited to answering?

Research questions most appropriate for an experiment have:

• A clear and simple logic. e.g. effect of one variable on another
• Units of analysis that can be manipulated. e.g. individuals NOT countries, economies, planets, stars
• A cause (independent variable) that the experimenter can manipulate. e.g. image on a computer screen, NOT growing up in poverty, or fearing for your life, or taking a dangerous drug