Where to find experiment participants?

July 19, 2011 5:05 AM

Does anyone know any appropriate mailing lists or online forums where I can find participants for an online music rating study?

I need to find around 50+ people to participate in a 45 minute online music rating experiment and questionnaire. All different levels of expertise with music are required. The best places to try seem to be music or psychology related forums or mailing lists (I tried to post to Metafilter Projects, but was not allowed for some reason). Any suggestions?

posted by leibniz to media & arts (11 answers total)

Are you paying for this? College undergrads are the classic fodder for these kinds of things.
posted by mkultra at 5:26 AM on July 19, 2011

Can you do this via Mechanical Turk?
posted by knile at 5:30 AM on July 19, 2011

Forgot to link to some examples of Mechanical Turk studies, disclaimer: done by colleagues of mine.
posted by knile at 5:31 AM on July 19, 2011

No payment is offered! Just looking for people with time to waste or work to avoid.
posted by leibniz at 5:36 AM on July 19, 2011

Are you doing this through an IRB?
How are you varifying that they're not minors? In the US?
Do you have a system set up for anonymity?
posted by k8t at 5:39 AM on July 19, 2011

Oh. Back in 1996, I did a huge survey via Usenet music fan groups. You may look to see if any of those are still active, but be careful of being an obvious cross-poster.

Also, Craigslist. Facebook, which is the new word-of-mouth.
posted by knile at 5:40 AM on July 19, 2011

The system is anonymous and has no ethical implications that would prevent minors taking part.
posted by leibniz at 5:46 AM on July 19, 2011

Getting 50 people to give you close to an hour of their time with nothing in return is incredibly hard. You really have to give someone something for their time; the internet is full of online marketing surveys that dole out Amazon gift certificates for far less. Is there really nothing you can offer them?
posted by mkultra at 8:34 AM on July 19, 2011

Offer a REALLY small amount of money on Mechanical Turk (like 50 cents). Most people won't mind taking part in a survey, but everyone is jaded by stupid scammy "surveys" that try to sell you stuff.

Posting to MeFi Projects might also work.
posted by miyabo at 1:36 PM on July 19, 2011

miyabo: "Posting to MeFi Projects might also work."

The OP tried this. It was disallowed, I assume because Projects is for completed (or, in some cases, ongoing) work, not soliciting help to complete something.
posted by mkultra at 2:39 PM on July 19, 2011

Mechanical Turk looks interesting (I guess I wouldn't mind paying out a very small amount) but you need to have a US billing address.
posted by leibniz at 5:44 AM on July 21, 2011