The Oxford eXperimental Laboratory (OxLab) is an experimental space for the social sciences, set up by Nir Vulkan (Said Business School, Oxford University) and Helen Margetts (OII) in 2006 with funding from the University of Oxford Fell Fund. A range of laboratory and field experiments are run from OxLab, from both economics and political science perspectives. Experiments include investigation into the effect of different information environments on collective action, the impact of different types of e-government provision on citizens’ information seeking behaviour, and deadline effects in auction design.
The massive growth in internet-mediated interactions between societies, governments and commercial organisations of all kinds creates a need for innovative methods to research online activity. Laboratory-based experiments where subjects are brought in and incentivized (via cash payments) to participate in games or information-seeking tasks on networked computers are an excellent way to develop such methodologies. Such laboratories have been used by experimental economists for some time, but the great expansion in online social and commercial activity means that as well as being more central to Economics research they have growing utility across other academic disciplines, particularly sociology, computer science and political science.
Left: Successful petitions (green) are those which receive 500 or more signatures, therefore receiving an official response from the government: only 5% ever reach this point (95% are unsuccessful, shown in pink). We can see that successful petitions tend to collect the required 500 signatures quickly and early: often within the first day (green lines concentrated to the left). (Source: http://www.number10.gov.uk.)
Right: Laboratory experiments (OxLab, 2008) have shown that the number of existing signatories affects the probability that an individual will sign a petition: red bars indicate a high number of existing signatures and show a higher than average likelihood that someone will sign each of the six petitions; yellow bars indicate low numbers of existing signatories and show a lower that average likelihood for signatures. The petitions were presented in a laboratory setting.
These graphs show that to be successful, a petition must collect many signatures relatively quickly (Left); the data also hints at a positive feedback loop and tipping point that may contribute to a petition’s ultimate success (Right): once a petition reaches a certain threshold of signatures within a critical early period, it will tend to continue to collect them.
We constantly seek volunteers for our experiments and you might be interested to know that we pay our participants! Experiments are simple and completely anonymous. They usually involve some form of decision making in an economic context or navigating the World Wide Web. To find out more, visit OXlab’s Online Recruitment System.
Professor of Society and the Internet
Project role: Co-Director, Research Investigator
Helen Margetts is Professor of Society and the Internet, a political scientist specialising in digital government and politics. She was Director of the OII from 2011-18. She is a Professorial Fellow of Mansfield College.
Former DPhil Student
Project role: Research Fellow
Tobias Escher has interests in citizen-government relationships online (eParticipation, eGovernment), in political representation as well as e-Social Science methods. He has a background in Communication Studies, Computer Science and Politics.
Former Research Associate
Project role: Co-Director, Research Investigator
Nir Vulkan is a Reader in Business Economics at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. His interests include economics of electronic commerce, economic design, automated trading, automated negotiations, and game theoretical analysis.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Project role: Laboratory Manager, Research Assistant
Dr Scott A. Hale is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Turing Fellow. He develops and applies computer science techniques to the social sciences focusing on improving equitable access to quality information.
Project role: Research Investigator
King’s College London
Project role: Research Investigator
Said Business School
Project role: Laboratory Manager, Research Assistant
