Interesting Survey Research on MTurk

[i2uss]

I searched to see if this research had been discussed previously but couldn't find a thread. While I was looking for some general information on scripting MTurk, I found this interesting study entitled: Using Mechanical Turk as a Subject Recruitment Tool for Experimental Research (warning PDF). It's worth a quick scan if you do surveys on MTurk as it provides some insight from the other side of the spectrum. I found the following excerpt particularly revealing.

To put these costs in perspective, even the highest pay rate we have used on MTurk of $.50 for a
5-minute survey (an effective hourly rate of $6.00) is still associated with a per-respondent cost of $.55
(including Amazon.com’s 10 percent surcharge) or $.11 per survey minute. By contrast, per subject costs
for typical undergraduate samples are about $5-10, for non-student campus samples about $30 (Kam et al.
2007), and for temporary agency subjects between $15 and $20. Outside of the campus setting, private
survey firms we have worked with charge at least $10 per subject for a 5-minute survey when respondents
are drawn from an Internet-panel. MTurk is, in short, extremely inexpensive relative to nearly every
alternative other than uncompensated students.8

[wittking9]

That tells me that I am working for too little! They need to pay us more!!!

[kbrislane]

Just another thing to piss everyone off after a bad week. I wish we could get strike going.

[genoa]

No need to get discouraged by articles like this. Just be aggressive in letting new requestors know what a fair rate is. Invite them to join TurkerNation. Be sure to quote good requesters from other educational institutions who post here. Respectable researchers have their own reputations to cultivate.

Another good idea is to actually send comments to the publications where articles like this are found and offer comments. Keep it professional and you might find your letter or email published in a later edition.

Cheers!