Do you pay me for participating in experiments? How much?
In most experiments, participants will receive compensation in cash. The exact amount of this payment will depend upon the decisions that participants make in the course of the experiment. For scientific reasons, we do not disclose in advance the magnitude of any potential payments.
Where paid compensation has been advertised:
If more participants turn up to a session than are required, the first persons to arrive at the laboratory who have registered for the session will participate. Any persons who have registered for the session, who arrive at the laboratory on time, and who are turned away will receive a $10 turn-away fee.
If a session is canceled with less than 48 hours notice, participants who have registered for that session will be compensated $10 for their inconvenience.
How can I cancel my registration for an experiment?
There is no feature which allows you to cancel your registration. We ask that you check your availability for a session BEFORE you register for it.
However, if you become ill or later decide that you do not wish to participate, please reply to your confirmation email and ask to be removed from the session AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
I’ve seen that there are sessions with free places in the calendar, but I cannot register for them. Why not?
For most experiments we only invite a random selection of people from the participant pool. We do this to ensure that it is not always the same people who participate in all of the experiments.
We sometimes also invite only people who meet certain criteria, for instance people who have not participated in certain previous experiments.
It is thus possible that you may see some sessions in the calendar, but you have not been invited to them. If there are not enough people who register for these sessions then we may sometimes send out more invitations to participate in them.
Do I have to show up when I am invited to an experiment?
You can only participate in an experiment that you have been invited to after you have explicitly confirmed your participation. You do this by clicking a link in the invitation email and choosing one of the sessions of the experiment. After you have registered for a session you will receive an email confirming this.
You can withdraw from an experiment at any time, even after you have registered. However, we ask as a courtesy that you inform us AS SOON AS POSSIBLE by replying to your confirmation email, so that another participant can take your place. The session may have to be cancelled if there are not enough participants.
Who can express their interest in participating in economics experiments?
Any currently enrolled student of The University of Sydney can express their interest in participating in economics experiments. Experiments will generally take place in the Experimental and Behavioural Lab on Level 1, Social Sciences Building (A02), Science Road on the Camperdown campus.
I registered for an experiment, but now I cannot register for the other experiments, because they disappeared!
Nearly all experiments consist of several sessions. You can only register for one session in any one experiment. If you have registered for a session, all the other sessions of that experiment will disappear from the list.
Should I put in false information when creating an account?
No, never do that. This information is a crucial element of our research. You will not be allowed to participate in experiments if your record is found to be incorrect.
If you do not want to provide certain information, you should just leave that field blank. Please note, however, that providing all of the requested information will increase your likelihood of being invited to participate in experiments.
What is the meaning of the three question marks “???” after an experiment under “Experiments you participated”?
After conducting an experiment, we need some time to update the participant database. Until the experimenter fills in the participation data, you will see three question marks as your “show-up” status for the experiment. After the data is updated, your status will change to either “yes” or “no”.