Summer Vacation

In Media Res is going on vacation, but will return with all new ramblings on Monday, August 23rd.  In the meantime...

A couple of weeks ago, our own Heather Wax did a post on an experiment involving altruism in religious vs. non-religious contexts.  What stood out to me, though, was the first sentence of the abstract:

We design a decision-making scenario experiment on Facebook to measure subjects’ altruism and trust toward attendees of a religious service, a fitness class and a local music performance.

I stopped reading at Facebook.  I didn't know that Facebook was considered a valid place to do experiments.  I imagine a roomful of academics looking at the proposal and saying "Face-what, now?" 

In retrospect, though, I don't see why not.  With half a billion users you're certainly dealing with a useful sample size.  I'm just accustomed to people thinking of Facebook as either frivolous or lucrative, not scientific.  The fact that it is being perceived in this way just means it's getting one step closer to becoming an ordinary communication tool — no one would think twice about an experiment involving telephones — and not a wonder of the age of social media.