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Academic Survey for Cash

Posted by Zonk on from the play-and-get-paid dept.

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."

14 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. The link is broken... by pilot1 · · Score: 1

    Whyyy?
    I want my $10.
    Now.

  2. a little more info... by rubberbando · · Score: 2, Informative

    since the link seems to be broken I quickly googled the topic...

    apparently OMGN has a small blurb on the topic and it says to email Dr. Dholakia if you are interested.

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    1. Re:a little more info... by Nasarius · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or you could have looked at the page source:
      the survey link

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  3. Real survey link by nukem1999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Found in page source
    Clicky

  4. survey link by sjvanwo · · Score: 1
    From a Top Web Games article:

    http://www.topwebgames.com/articles/view.asp?id=33 8

    -S

  5. friends... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1


    Hmm... I lost all my friends when I started playing Star Wars Galaxies. Would someone from my guild count towards the $10?

    I could probably get them to do it in exchange for a set of composite armor or some krayt tissues ;-)

  6. How can a survey for money be unbiased? by wondercool · · Score: 1

    If you offer money for an opinion, it might attract more people who are actually not MUD'ers at all.
    Offering money screws your sample me thinks...

  7. Re:Kill yourself. Please. by wikdwarlock · · Score: 1

    Alan, is that you?

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    "I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." -Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
  8. $30! by jjshoe · · Score: 1

    Cool, i can fake three surverys and have money sent to me, and each of my grandparents to make $30.

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    1. Re:$30! by bizpile · · Score: 1

      Cool, i can fake three surverys and have money sent to me, and each of my grandparents to make $30.
      Actually you'd have to fake 6 to get $30. You'd need two for each of the fakes as well. So, I guess I wasn't the only person with that idea :)

  9. Psychology Studies by MonkeyCookie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Psychology Studies by droleary · · Score: 1

      Paying people for participating has no effect on the results of the study.

      If you actually think that, I hope you're not a psychologist. Having any a priori reward system will skew results by reducing the randomness of the sample set. It's the same problem as aiming for the wrong target in a focus group study. If you want to do a market survey of luxury car buyers, how many participants do you think you'd get for $10? You definitely will affect a study if you offer $10, $1000, a new computer, or free condoms for a year.

  10. Personal check by dacarr · · Score: 1

    They'll mail a personal check... man, I hope they aren't going to write all those personal checks, that's gonna kill their arms.

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  11. Why focus on MUD by rmlawren · · Score: 1

    Why would they focus on MUD, seems like the survey might be tainted! Probably created from MUD players who are trying to get money from the college!