Proposing a Compensation Requirement for Audit Studies
| Author | Daniel M Butler,Scott Desposato |
| DOI | 10.1177/14789299211052910 |
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Experiments with Politicians: Ethics, Power, and the Boundaries of Political Science |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211052910
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(2) 201 –208
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299211052910
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Proposing a Compensation
Requirement for Audit Studies
Daniel M Butler1 and Scott Desposato2
Abstract
We examine compensation as a tool to encourage the thoughtful use of audit experimentation.
If researchers had to compensate subjects or communities, they would be more likely to avoid
excessively large studies and to only conduct high-value studies. We build on Desposato and
propose that when conducting an audit study, (1) researchers donate time or money to the
communities potentially affected by the study, (2) researchers preregister this donation, and (3)
researchers provide evidence of the donation they made in publication and presentation.
Keywords
audit studies, research ethics
Accepted: 16 September 2021
Introduction
Audit studies have been used for decades to study discrimination in housing and labor
markets (see review in Gaddis (2017)) and have become popular in political science since
the study conducted by Butler and Broockman (2011). At their most basic, audit studies
initiate some interaction with the subjects being studied (a request for help, a job applica-
tion, an application for rental housing, etc.) and then measure how the subjects respond.1
Typically, subjects do not know that they are part of a research study or that they are
interacting with a researcher or confederate.
Audit studies have become popular for at least two reasons. First, audit studies allow
researchers to measure social phenomenon, especially unacceptable behaviors, that would
be difficult or impossible to measure in other types of studies where subjects are fully
informed and consenting. Subjects are unlikely to respond truthfully when asked directly
about racism, sexism, discrimination, corruption, or any number of other attitudes or
behaviors. In addition, if subjects know they are being observed by scholars, they are
unlikely to behave in socially unacceptable ways.2 But when subjects are unaware of the
1Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
2University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
Corresponding author:
Daniel M Butler, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA.
Email: daniel.butler@gmail.com
1052910PSW0010.1177/14789299211052910Political Studies ReviewButler and Desposato
research-article2021
Symposia and New Ideas
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