Conducting Experimental Behavioural Research Using a Mock Social Media Website

This workshop will guide attendees on how to locally set up and conduct experimental, behavioural research using the Mock Social Media Website Tool. The tool allows researchers to create and specify the contents of a mock social media website timeline/news feed and collect detailed behavioural data on how participants interact with it. This tool is uniquely capable, as it simultaneously allows for high experimental control (e.g., specify every detail about each post, control what information is presented in different experimental conditions) and ecological validity (closely simulates the user interface and experience of actual social media platforms), and thus produces highly-quality data. The proposed workshop will guide attendees, step-by-step, on how to set up the tool locally, build a study, specify which social media platform to simulate, specify the posts to appear on simulated news feeds, specify custom translations, as well as provide resources and practical advice on how to adapt it for the differing needs of different research designs. Readers are encouraged to visit https://docs.studysocial.media/docs/intro to learn more about the tool.

Speakers: Arvin Jagayat, Ryerson University; Becky Choma, Ryerson University