Slashdot Mirror
Academic Survey for Cash
Dr. Paul Dholakia writes "Drs. Richard Bagozzi, Paul Dholakia, and Rene Algesheimer are management and psychology faculty at Rice University and the University of Zurich. We are conducting an academic survey of online gamers and MUD players. This survey is specifically about interactions among friends who play online games and/or MUD together, and for this reason must be completed by groups of three friends. The survey takes approximately twenty minutes to complete, and the survey is available here. We are paying $10 to each participant provided they and two of their friends each complete the survey individually. We will pay participants the money upon completion of the survey by the group, either through Paypal, or by mailing them a personal check."
Note that getting money for doing this is nothing all that unusual. Participants of psychological studies are usually paid for their participation, as it becomes a lot easier to find subjects for study. At universities where psychological research is conducted, it is not uncommon to see posters urging students to come and participate in a study to earn a little extra cash.
Paying people for participating has no effect on the results of the study. What can screw up a study is when the subjects are aware what exactly is being studied. When you're aware of what behaviour is being observed, you usually change that behaviour, either consciously or unconsciously. Usually, people conducting a study will tell the subjects they are studying one thing, where in reality they are studying something else.