Proestakis Antonios, Marandola Ginevra, Lourenço Joana S, van Bavel René
Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Rue du Champ de Mars 21, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Edificio Expo, Calle Inca Garcilaso 3, 41092, Seville, Spain.
J Behav Exp Econ. 2024 Aug;111:None. doi: 10.1016/j.socec.2024.102220.
The reliance on student samples has long been a subject of debate in experimental approaches to studying behaviour. We contribute to this discussion by looking at differences in financial behaviour between a student and a non-student sample in three sets of lab experiments conducted in Spain, Germany and Poland (n=857). Participants from both samples switched more often and made better financial decisions after they received a message encouraging them to switch financial service providers. While the size of the effect on switching frequency was comparable between the two samples, the effect on switching quality was significantly stronger on non-students. Further analysis suggests this is due to a better performance of students before the prompt leaving less room for improvement by the reminder. Results suggest that experimental evidence derived from students should be generalized with caution.
在行为研究的实验方法中，长期以来，依赖学生样本一直是一个有争议的话题。我们通过观察在西班牙、德国和波兰进行的三组实验室实验（n = 857）中，学生样本和非学生样本在金融行为上的差异，为这一讨论做出了贡献。在收到鼓励他们更换金融服务提供商的信息后，两个样本的参与者都更频繁地进行了更换，并且做出了更好的金融决策。虽然两个样本在更换频率上的影响大小相当，但对非学生样本在更换质量上的影响明显更强。进一步的分析表明，这是因为学生在收到提示之前表现较好，留给提示改善的空间较小。结果表明，从学生身上获得的实验证据应谨慎推广。
