The Problem: Paying research participants is expensive.
The Solution: Make participation a voluntary social event and civic duty.
This idea was born of reading the book Predictably Irrational and Dan Airley’s multiple mentions that he didn’t have enough money to run more experiments.
I’ve participated in a number of paid and unpaid academic research projects, and in all cases I have only ever taken part where I was interested in the research. The money was a nice bonus, but not the major incentive – at £10 for an hour session it’s never going to make you rich.
Even when I was involved in a multiple-month experiment and the payment was £100, it was the topic of the research that got me interested, not the money itself.
So, my first query is whether people need to be paid at all, or if instead the research could just be designed to be more interesting and the benefits to people be made more clear, and if it could be made easier to participate in (easier to get to, at more convenient times of day, etc).
I’m also a blood donor, which in the UK is un-paid, but I do it as part of my civic duty.
So, I query whether paying people to take part in experiments is an effective use of funds. Instead, we should seek to make it more of a social contract, where people volunteer to take part to help the advancement of human knowledge, not for monetary gain. Having a national database of willing participants, much like NHS Blood Donation, would help, with a centralised system of management that sends out requests for support based on geography, age and other factors relevant to the research.
Much like with blood donation, since people are giving up their time for free, they should receive some small benefit, such as tea, biscuits and crisps, but not payment. You get that with blood donation (it’s to help stop people feinting after donation, but it is also conveniently acts as a nice gift for donors).
Offering people small gifts such as biscuits or a free meal in the university canteen for those who participate would also be helpful. They cost very little to provide, but are valued by participants, and changing the discourse to a social instead of market relationship, by making it a voluntary participation with a gift, encourages more people to turn up.
Travelling 30 minutes to do an hour long session for £10 is not worth it for the majority of people. However, make it a voluntary contribution to knowledge advancement with no monetary gain, but biscuits or a free meal instead, and more people will be willing to participate. And the research will cost less to carry out.
This is, therefore, a potential way to vastly increase the number and diversity of participants in academic research while also saving money on the cost of that research; that could have a significant impact on the advancement of human knowledge, and would be an interesting experiment in and of itself, to identify the most effective way to entice participation.
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