social science research experiments

In this article, we first overview the impressive growth in the use of the experimental method across the social sciences. Second, we detail key features of experimental design, citing myriad examples of effective and creative experimental designs currently used throughout the social sciences.

Experimental research is best suited for explanatory research—rather than for descriptive or exploratory research—where the goal of the study is to examine cause-effect relationships. It also works well for research that involves a relatively limited and well-defined set of independent variables that can either be manipulated or controlled.

Renita Coleman walks readers step-by-step on how to plan and execute experiments from the beginning by discussing choosing and collecting a sample, creating the stimuli and questionnaire, doing a manipulation check or pre-test, analyzing the data, and understanding and interpreting the results.

The cul-minating chapter prepares readers for their own social science experiments, offering examples of studies that can be conducted ethically, inexpensively, and quickly. Replication datasets and R code for all examples and exercises are available online at cambridge.org/socialscienceexperiments.

In the midst of the current causal revolution, experimental methods are increasingly embraced across the social sciences. We first document the growth in the use of the experimental method and then overview the current state of the field along with suggestions for future research.

The book includes discussion of the place of experiments in the social science process, the assumptions underlying different types of experiments, the validity of experiments, the application of different designs (such as audit field experiments and conjoint survey experiments), how to arrive at experimental questions, the role of replications in