Talk:Social experiment

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This article was selected as the article for improvement on 15 April 2013 for a period of one week.

Issue with the article

Editor,

I recommend that this page be taken down. I am the co-author of the first reference cited, The Digest of Social Experiments. The last sentence in the first paragraph and the entire remainder of the article have completely confused two totally different types of experiment. Social experiments test the effects of policy -- usually government policy -- in the real world, but randomly assigning different treatments to different individuals, families, firms, or jurisdictions. Social *psychology* experiments are laboratory tests of various psychology theories. Somebody who knew something about the latter but nothing about the former has spliced them together.

Mark Shroder

Thankyou very much for your explanation of the major fault with this article. It is true that I created a basic stub so *something* was there. Otherwise, people would not even have thought to create such an article. But not knowing much about it, I had no idea that the term was used in two very distinct circumstances. Your expertise in this matter would be invaluable. Perhaps you could consider giving the article a bit of a boost? I'm fairly sure taht would mean splitting it up into the "test[ing] the effects of policy" type and the "laboratory tests" type, so obviously the one you would be most interested in would be the former. I must confess that I do think they are connected and related, at least to some degree. Yet as you have clearly demonstrated, you are much more knowledgable than I on this topic, so I will let you be the true judge of that.--Coin945 (talk) 16:54, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

- In light of the above comments and the existence of the famous experiments section of the Social Psychology article, which already has more information than this article does on most of these experiments, I have merged some of the remaining experiments mentioned here into that article. I'm about to delete them from this article and add an "About" tag to direct those looking for information on social psychology experiments to the relevant section of Social Psychology. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gzabers (talk • contribs) 01:54, 15 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree that it should be taken down!

If this article were to be deleted, when people enter, Social Experiment-there would not be any information. It looks like the article has been chosen for improvement and I agree with THAT.24.0.133.234 (talk) 11:14, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Recommendations for Improvement

This article was reviewed by a collaborative group from UCLA, ODU, and UC Irvine. These comments are intended to help an editor revise the topic.

The introduction lacks a clear structure. We suggest that it start with a definition of social experiment, including social (dealing with people) and experiment (manipulating variables). A brief sentence or two of background might also be good.

The efficacy section lacks a clear purpose and should be moved and integrated into, perhaps, a Difficulties of Experimentation section, or something of the like. Randomization and other aspects of experimentation, such as sample selection, funding, difficulty of controlling confounds, etc. could go here.

The History section could be expanded quite considerably, and in so doing, might give the reader greater insight into the purpose and structure of Social Experimentation.

We feel that ethical considerations deserve their own section, along with both (or more) sides of the debate, and a few examples.

Similarly, we feel that instead of a "best known experiments" section, a few examples could be included that demonstrate ethical issues, the influence that social experimentation can have on policy, etc. Many of the "best known" list are in fact known to nearly no-one. Additionally, more details about the methodology, outcomes, aftereffects (policy change? more research?), and any criticism, should be included in the examples.

Some sources that may be helpful:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1114168/

https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jgd.2015.6.issue-1/jgd-2014-0016/jgd-2014-0016.xml

https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2007/R2479.pdf

Leibnesc (talk) 20:02, 28 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Major Restructing

On 19th July 2019, I’ve taken on the job to restructure this whole article, as well as making the article as clear and as understanding as possible. While I do this job, I may need the help of some people who are experienced in this topic. I would appreciate this. I expect to finish this by tomorrow or after tomorrow. Neon 23:23, 19 July 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by OfficialNeon (talk • contribs)

Sections are too short

I feel like there isn’t enough information with these experiments. Many of these sections are only one paragraph and I feel like it could be so much more specific but It just feels more like summaries and I think for social experiments to be its own page it should be as specific as possible with each experiment. There’s an informal social experiment section as well but it’s just two bullet points that lead to other wikipedia pages which is interesting but is it really necessary? We could have an explanation of those experiments as well with a hyperlink to the main article like all the other experiment sections in my opinion or turn it into a "See also" section. Jacobnlloren (talk) 06:55, 22 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Technical Editing

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 January 2023 and 5 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jacobnlloren (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by ALCH3MIST1011 (talk) 20:54, 20 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]