Katherine Is Interested in Designing an Experiment to Examine Whether

question 50

Essay

Katherine is interested in designing an experiment to examine whether people who use online dating websites are more likely to find satisfying relationships than individuals who do not use such websites. To do so, she designs a study where people in the experimental condition are those who have used online dating websites to find their current romantic partner. Participants in the control condition are individuals who met their partners in person. She measures and compares their current level of relationship satisfaction to reveal that participants who met online are more satisfied than those who met face-to-face. Imagine that you are a journal editor who received her manuscript claiming that online dating causes more satisfying relationship. What is the fatal flaw in her experimental design that would lead you to reject this paper for publication?

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Definitions:

Milgram Experiment

A psychological experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s to study obedience to authority, where participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to another person.

Stanford University Prison Experiment

A psychological study conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University, where students were assigned roles of prisoners and guards to explore the effects of perceived power.

Generalization

Drawing a conclusion about a certain characteristic of a population based on a sample from it.

Logical Support

The provision of reasons or evidence to justify a claim or argument.