Natural Experiments

Done with ethics in mind

An experiment conducted when an opportunity arises because it would be ethically incorrect to manipulate the IV to do the subjected thing

Examples

Some examples are of Romanian orphans and their age of adoption altering their development or of the behaviour of people on St Helens before and after TV

IV not controlled

IV is not manipulated, just taken advantage of something that was already happening and would be difficult to control

Working with what you can

The lack of control over the IV means that researchers have to work with what they have, which might not be what they had planned because they cannot control it any other way

Real life situations

This allows researchers to work with real life situations and look at behaviour which will be both authentic and relevant to every day life

No measurement of casual relations

The lack of control over the IV mean that you can not demonstrate casual relationships between similar but slightly different conditions as these cannot be manipulated

Natural experiments are done when opportunities arise as it cant be simulated due to technical or ethical situations but can be measured when they naturally occur and are helpful because they are real life situations but cannot measure casual relationships due to the lack of control over the IV