bots

While the Ottoman Turks caused turmoil in the late Middle Ages and the Age of Reformation, Amazon’s Mechanical Turks are causing a turmoil in experimental research at this moment. While early studies documented that Amazon’s Mechanical Turk participants were valid proxies for experimental accounting research, there are increasing concerns about the quality of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) data.

Bots are a powerful yet often overlooked tool that helps experimental researchers test their applications more effectively and efficiently. In this post, Victor van Pelt explains their use and argues that their usefulness may even extend beyond testing.