RUI: Judgment and Decision Making on the Internet

摘要迈克尔·H·伯恩鲍姆互联网为人类体验提供了一个新的领域。对互联网在人口中的渗透率的增长速度的估计表明，它的使用增长速度快于以前的创新(电话、无线电和电视)，这些创新已经在工业化国家变得几乎普遍。大多数美国人很快就会使用互联网进行交流、商业交易和娱乐。互联网也为行为研究的开展提供了一个令人兴奋的新媒介。通过互联网研究，现在有可能在几周内完成过去需要六个月或一年的工作。由于万维网提供了一个极其异质的国际样本，所以有可能检验实验室研究对人口统计学群体的普遍性，而这些群体在以前的研究中很少被研究。这使得人们可以调查实验室研究得出的结论是否对在大学实验室测试的大学二年级学生是独一无二的，或者它们是否对在更自然的条件下测试的更大规模的人群具有外部有效性。普通民众在互联网上使用的认知过程与大学实验室中的学生使用的认知过程相同吗？这个问题有两个方面需要区分。首先，被测试的人是不同的，所以结果上的任何差异可能是由于被测试群体之间的教育、年龄、财富或其他人口统计学差异造成的。第二个方面是，互联网媒体本身可能会诱导不同的思维、推理、判断和决策模式。这项研究探索了这些问题。这是一项继续和扩大正在进行的互联网研究计划的建议。除了有6000名参与者在互联网上进行判断和决策的实验外，我还提议对行为科学家进行关于互联网的调查，并创建工具，使学生和互联网研究新手更容易将他们的研究适应这种新媒体。通过比较实验室和网络研究，两种方法的有效性都可以得到更好的验证。通过比较不同人口群体的结果，可以检查这些特征和研究结果之间的联系。如果通过互联网进行的行为研究发挥了其潜力，那么促进此类研究转移到互联网的过程可以加速科学事业的发展。

Abstract***9986436Michael H. BirnbaumThe Internet provides a new domain of human experience. Estimates ofthe growth rate of penetration of the Internet among the populationshows that its use is growing faster than previous innovations(telephones, radio, and television) that have already become nearlyuniversal in industrialized nations. The majority of the U.S.population will soon be using the Internet for communication, commercialtransactions, and entertainment. The Internet also provides an excitingnew medium for the conduct of behavioral research. By means of Internetresearch, it is now possible to accomplish in a few weeks what used torequire six months or a year. Because the World Wide Web makesavailable an extremely heterogeneous, international sample, it becomespossible to examine the generality of laboratory research to demographicgroups that have rarely been studied in previous research. This allowsone to investigate if conclusions from laboratory research are unique tocollege sophomores tested in university labs or if they have externalvalidity to a larger population tested under more naturalisticconditions. Are the cognitive processes used by the general population on theInternet 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 inresults may be due to differences in education, age, wealth, or otherdemographic differences among the groups tested. The second aspect isthat the Internet medium itself may itself induce different modes ofthought, reasoning, judgment, and decision-making. This researchexplore these questions.This is a proposal to continue and expand an on-going program ofresearch on the Internet. In addition to experiments on judgment anddecision-making on the Internet with 6,000 participants, I proposeto conduct surveys of behavioral scientists about the Internet and tocreate tools that will make it easier for students and newcomers toInternet research to adapt their studies to this new medium. Bycomparing lab and Web studies, the validity of both procedures can betested. By comparing the results for different demographic groups, itis possible to examine the linkage between such characteristics andresearch findings. If behavioral research conducted via the Internetlives up to its potential, then the process of facilitating the transferof such research to the Internet can result in acceleration of thescientific enterprise.***