Can We Generalize from Student Experiments to the Real World in Political Science, Military Affairs, and International Relations?

Mintz, Alex; Redd, Steven B.; Vedlitz, Arnold

doi:10.1177/0022002706291052

Cited by 139 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…14 In political science, for example, Mintz (2006) find significant differences in the behavior of a student sample and a sample of military leaders in a process-tracing experiment related to military affairs and international relationships. Henrich and colleagues (Henrich 2000;Henrich et al 2004) compare behavior within dictator, ultimatum, and public goods games across samples of adults and students from non-U.S. cultures to U.S. students.…”

Section: Moving Beyond the Narrow Data Base: When And Whymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Narrow Data Base”: Another Convenience Sample for Experimental Research

2007

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The experimental approach has begun to permeate political science research, increasingly so in the last decade. Laboratory researchers face at least two challenges: determining who to study and how to lure them into the lab. Most experimental studies rely on student samples, yet skeptics often dismiss student samples for lack of external validity. In this article, we propose another convenience sample for laboratory research: campus staff. We report on a randomized experiment to investigate the characteristics of samples drawn from a general local population and from campus staff. We report that campus staff evidence significantly higher response rates, and we find few discernible differences between the two samples. We also investigate the second challenge facing researchers: how to lure subjects into the lab. We use evidence from three focus groups to identify ways of luring this alternative convenience sample into the lab. We analyze the impact of self-interest, social-utility, and neutral appeals on encouraging study participation, and we find that campus staff respond better to a no-nonsense approach compared to a hard-sell that promises potential policy benefits to the community or, and especially, to the self. We conclude that researchers should craft appeals with caution as they capitalize on this heretofore largely untapped reservoir for experimental research: campus employees.

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Section: Moving Beyond the Narrow Data Base: When And Whymentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Narrow Data Base”: Another Convenience Sample for Experimental Research

2007

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“…For this reason, the discipline is often open to the criticism that what we find is limited to particular contrived laboratory situations or to particular demographics (e.g., Mintz, Redd, & Vedlitz, 2006;Sears, 1986) Thus, those few opportunities to measure social psychological phenomenon in the real world are particularly valuable. Real world demonstrations are particularly important in this case because critiques of Kruger and Dunning (1999) have centered on whether their findings are limited to particular types of tasks (e.g., easy tasks or tasks with unreliable measures; Burson et al, 2006;Krueger & Mueller, 2002).…”

Section: Section 1: Correcting For Reliability In Self-assessments Fomentioning

confidence: 99%

Why the Unskilled Are Unaware: Further Explorations of (Absent) Self-Insight Among the Incompetent

et al. 2006

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“…There has been discussion in the experimental literature as to whether students were representative of the general population. The studies were conducted using subjects in experiments drawn from many academic areas, including political science (Mintz et al 2006), marketing (Enis et al 1972, and economics (Depositario et al 2009). Most of the economic studies used auctions to test for a difference in behavior, and most do not find significant difference between students and professionals in the experiments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An experimental analysis of risk and entrepreneurial attitudes of university students in the USA and Brazil

Barber

2015

J Int Entrep

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There is a long-standing debate about whether entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs differ in risk aversion levels. The paper addresses international differences in risk and entrepreneurial attitudes of university students, specifically in the USA and Brazil. This paper also aims to add to the ongoing debate surrounding the risk attitudes of entrepreneurial persons when compared to non-entrepreneurial persons. The data from the paper was generated from an economic experiment. The economic experiment included a sample of students from both the USA and Brazil. Subjects completed a shortened version of the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) and then participated in an investment game. Summary HighlightsContributions: This paper contributes to the debate surrounding international entrepreneurial attitudes and risk attitudes. The paper employs a unique research methodology when approaching this topic. An economic experiment is used to empirically test for differences in risk attitudes based on entrepreneurial attitudes. Research questions/purpose: There are two primary purposes of this study. One is to investigate whether individuals with entrepreneurial attitudes are more likely to invest in a risky asset when compared to subjects with non-entrepreneurial attitudes. The second is to determine if individuals in the USA were more or less entrepreneurial than subjects in Brazil and if they demonstrated differing risk attitudes. Results/findings: The findings suggest that the US subjects were more entrepreneurial than those in Brazil, and this held true for two different specifications of the entrepreneurial variable. Individuals in Brazil and the USA did not differ in their risk-taking behavior. Finally, entrepreneurial individuals were more willing to invest at a higher rate into a risky asset when compared to non-entrepreneurial subjects. Limitations: There are a couple of limitations due to the research methodology and sample population. First, all subjects in the experiments, in both the USA and Brazil, were university students. This leads to difficulty in generalizing the results to the general public. Also, the sample size was limited to 78 in the USA and 54 in Brazil. Finally, the study measured entrepreneurial attitudes among individuals who were not actually entrepreneurs. The instrument used, the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation, has predictive validity; however, it has not been testing for temporal predictive validity. Theoretical implications and recommendations: Theory suggests that risk-taking is a component of entrepreneurial orientation. This paper adds to this theory by finding support for a positive relationship between financial risk-taking and entrepreneurial attitudes. Practical implications and recommendations: The practical implications are relevant primarily for policy makers. The individual-level, microdata gives insight into the differences in risk-taking between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial individuals.Subjects in the USA were found to be more entrepreneurial than the sampl...

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Can We Generalize from Student Experiments to the Real World in Political Science, Military Affairs, and International Relations?

Cited by 139 publications

References 29 publications

Beyond the “Narrow Data Base”: Another Convenience Sample for Experimental Research

Beyond the “Narrow Data Base”: Another Convenience Sample for Experimental Research

Why the Unskilled Are Unaware: Further Explorations of (Absent) Self-Insight Among the Incompetent

An experimental analysis of risk and entrepreneurial attitudes of university students in the USA and Brazil

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