Using Facebook as a Subject Recruitment Tool for Survey-Experimental Research

20 Pages Posted: 5 Jul 2012 Last revised: 4 Jul 2014

See all articles by David J. Samuels

David J. Samuels

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Department of Political Science

Cesar Zucco

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE)

Date Written: August 2013

Abstract

We consider the use of Facebook to recruit participants for online survey-experimental studies of public opinion. Based on two such studies we recently conducted, we discuss sample composition, attention to the task, and the possibility of rewarding participants through a lottery. We show that Facebook can be a cost-effective tool for rapidly recruiting large samples of participants anywhere in the world. These characteristics make it be particularly useful for recruitment of samples from elusive populations and in non-US settings – situations in which MTurk can be of little help.

Keywords: survey-experiments, online, Facebook

JEL Classification: C99

Suggested Citation

Samuels, David J. and Zucco, Cesar, Using Facebook as a Subject Recruitment Tool for Survey-Experimental Research (August 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2101458 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2101458

David J. Samuels

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Department of Political Science ( email )

Minneapolis, MN 55455-0410
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.polisci.umn.edu/~dsamuels/

Cesar Zucco (Contact Author)

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE) ( email )

Praia de Botafogo 190
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
2,472
Abstract Views
9,471
Rank
10,638
PlumX Metrics