The Use of Reddit as an Inexpensive Source for High-Quality Data

Abstract

Today, researchers have the ability to conduct their investigations in a number of different manners, including both traditional testing using university subject pool participants and the more recent method of online recruitment. Although the use of internet participants is becoming more popular, this area of research is still very much in its infancy and needs further examination. Additionally, alternative web-based platforms need to be investigated because much of the literature has focused on using Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Therefore, the current study recruited an internet population using the website Reddit, and compared them to a traditional undergraduate sample to learn more about this web-based platform. The results demonstrated similarities and distinctions between the two samples. Furthermore, previous findings in the psychological well-being literature were replicated. As a whole, the participants recruited from Reddit provided high-quality data that were inexpensive and comparable to the responses gathered using undergraduate participants. We conclude that this website appears to be a promising tool for the field of psychological assessment, research, and evaluation.