Uncovering noisy social signals: Using optimization methods from experimental physics to study social phenomena.

ABSTRACT: Due to the ubiquitous presence of treatment heterogeneity, measurement error, and contextual confounders, numerous social phenomena are hard to study. Precise control of treatment variables and possible confounders is often key to the success of studies in the social sciences, yet often proves out of the realm of control of the experimenter. To amend this situation we propose a novel approach coined "lock-in feedback" which is based on a method that is routinely used in high-precision physics experiments to extract small signals out of a noisy environment. Here, we adapt the method to noisy social signals in multiple dimensions and evaluate it by studying an inherently noisy topic: the perception of (subjective) beauty. We show that the lock-in feedback approach allows one to select optima

SUBMITTER: Kaptein M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5357023 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature