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Do Student Samples Provide an Accurate Estimate of the General Public?
Open accessAbstract
Most psychological studies rely on student samples. Students are usually considered as more homogenous than representative samples both within and across countries. However, little is known about the nature of the differences between student and representative samples. This is an important gap, also because knowledge about the degree of difference between student and representative samples may allow to infer from the former to the latter group. Across 59 countries and 12 personality (Big-5) and attitudinal variables we found that differences between students and general public were partly substantial, incoherent, and contradicted previous findings. Two often used cultural variables, embeddedness and intellectual autonomy, failed to explain the differences between both groups across countries. We further found that students vary as much as the general population both between and within countries. In summary, our results indicate that generalizing from students to the general public can be problematic when personal and attitudinal variables are used, as students vary mostly randomly from the general public. Findings are also discussed in terms of the replication crisis within psychology.
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“A further comment, which is true for much psychology literature (e.g., Hanel & Vione, 2016), is that most of this research depends on student samples, most commonly psychology student samples.”
From Factors Related to Mean Score Group Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests: A Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as Hanel & Vione, 2016
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“Further, the samples were homogeneous, consisting largely of current or prospective university students and staff, which are unrepresentative of autistic or non-autistic populations (see also, Hanel & Vione, 2016).”
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“They conducted lab experiments with students, which are criticized for not being valid externally in several disciplines (Bello et al., 2009; Hanel & Vione, 2016; Henry, 2008; Peterson, 2001).”
BackgroundWang, N., Ren, F., & Zhou, X.-L. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01355 · Cited by 29
“We chose to recruit college students for two reasons: students were evidenced as heterogeneous as the community people (Hanel and Vione, 2016) and the facility of collecting test–retest data.”
BackgroundThe impact of customer engagement on customer happiness
de Azambuja, G. P., Peña, G. A. R., & Vargas, E. G. T. (2023) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.2147 · Cited by 28
Ong, W. Y., & Sündermann, O. (2022) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/41800 · Cited by 40
“First, student participants may limit the generalizability of findings, as university students and the public may differ in factors such as level of education [91].”
BackgroundPrevalence and correlates of individuals with sexual interest in children: A systematic review
Savoie, V., Quayle, E., & Flynn, E. (2021) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105005 · Cited by 31
Brand equity, online reviews, and message trust: the moderating role of persuasion knowledge
Ahmad, F., & án, F. G. (2020) · Journal of Product & Brand Management · doi:10.1108/jpbm-09-2019-2564 · Cited by 41
The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America
Willard, A. K., & McNamara, R. A. (2019) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/cogs.12703 · Cited by 39
“Psychological subject pools have been claimed as problematic and often do not generalize to the population at large (Hanel & Vione, 2016), yet they are still used at a high level in psychological research.”
BackgroundUher, J. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1009893 · Cited by 33
“…questionnaires’ reliability and validity not only outside of Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) populations but also their adequacy and predictive utility for studying individuals within Western countries (Hanel and Vione, 2016; Laajaj et al., 2019; Condon et al., 2021).”
BackgroundLekkas, D., Price, G. D., & Jacobson, N. C. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.107029 · Cited by 31
“Further, student self-reports on personal and attitudinal variables do not generalize well to the public (Hanel & Vione, 2016), which may be extended to the self-reported fatigue and boredom metrics considered in the present study.”
BackgroundAlbayay, J., Villarroel-Gruner, P., Bascour–Sandoval, C., Parma, V., & Galvéz-García, G. (2019) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2019.103618 · Cited by 32
Why, when, and from whom: considerations for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data in HCI
Chen, Y. T., Smith, A. D. R., Reinecke, K., & To, A. (2023) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3544548.3581122 · Cited by 22
“dustrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples [7, 45, 73, 90] and among college students [41, 46, 90].”
BackgroundThe effect of seeing scientists as intellectually humble on trust in scientists and their research
Koetke, J., Schumann, K., Bowes, S. M., & Vaupotič, N. (2024) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-024-02060-x · Cited by 30
“While this does make them more diverse than typical university pools 70 , it also limits their generalizability (for example, all participants chose to opt in to academic research websites and therefore may have more positive attitudes towards science).”
Informal learning research in hospitality and tourism: A systematic literature review
Kodom-Wiredu, J. K., Coetzer, A., Redmond, J., & Sharafizad, J. (2022) · Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management · doi:10.1016/j.jhtm.2022.05.011 · Cited by 29
Zinn, S., Landrock, U., & Gnambs, T. (2020) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-020-01480-7 · Cited by 34
“I Just Go with It”: Negotiating Sexual Desire Discrepancies for Women in Partnered Relationships
Fahs, B., Swank, E., & Shambe, A. (2019) · Sex Roles · doi:10.1007/s11199-019-01098-w · Cited by 23
Howard, M. C., & O’Sullivan, R. (2024) · The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice · doi:10.1080/10696679.2024.2385377 · Cited by 24
“Many methodologists have commented on the frequent inadequacy of research samples, as convenient sources may not always generalize to intended target populations (Hanel et al., 2016; Stevens, 2011).”
Uher, J. (2023) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12740 · Cited by 31
Miranda, A. R., Scotta, A. V., Méndez, A., Serra, S., & Soria, E. A. (2020) · Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi · doi:10.3961/jpmph.20.229 · Cited by 22
“However, further studies are needed to assess the reliability and validity of these instruments in other Latin American Spanish-speaking populations, since psychological research performed in students is not appropriate for generalizations to the general public [10].”
BackgroundArousal enhances herding tendencies when decision making
Coker, B. (2020) · Journal of Consumer Behaviour · doi:10.1002/cb.1811 · Cited by 26
Communication blackouts in power outages: Findings from scenario exercises in Germany and France
Mahdavian, F., Platt, S., Wiens, M., Klein, M., & Schultmann, F. (2020) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101628 · Cited by 21
Castro, N., Curley, T., & Hertzog, C. (2020) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-020-01454-9 · Cited by 21
“…variety of research that is reliant on category norms and continuing concern regarding the replicability of psychological research (Arnett, 2016; Hanel & Vione, 2016; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010), it is critical that future norms continue to make attempts Table 8 Stability of categories…”
Is intellectual humility related to more accuracy and less overconfidence?
Bowes, S. M., Ringwood, A., & Tasimi, A. (2023) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2023.2208100 · Cited by 30
“…differences between community and college samples has been a challenging endeavor for decades (see Peterson, 2001); for instance, even cultural worldviews have been found not to explain differences between community and college samples in studies from dozens of countries (e.g. Hanel & Vione, 2016).”
BackgroundFerrar, J., Griffith, G. J., Skirrow, C., Cashdollar, N. M., Taptiklis, N., Dobson, J., Cree, F., Cormack, F. K., Barnett, J. H., & Munafo, M. R. (2021) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/26004 · Cited by 23
Culture and Sampling Issues With “Green” Attitude Research
Larson, R. B., & Kinsey, J. (2019) · Social Marketing Quarterly · doi:10.1177/1524500419838989 · Cited by 20
Hanel, P., Zarzeczna, N., & Haddock, G. (2018) · Social Psychology and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550618803348 · Cited by 20
“This replicates Hanel and Vione (2016) who investigated whether student samples and the general public are more heterogeneous in more autonomous and less embedded countries (cf. Schwartz, 2006).”
BackgroundSelf-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Hanel, P. H. P., & Vione, K. C.
- Affiliations
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Hanel, Paul H. P.
- ORCID
- Hanel, Paul H. P.
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2016-12-21
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e0168354
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5176168
- OpenAlex
- W2569236205
- Cited by
- 510
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 71 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 80 · 2020: 87 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 5
- FWCI
- 23.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (acceptedVersion)
- University of Derby Online Research Archive. (University of Derby) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- The University of Bath Online Publications Store (The University of Bath) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Pure (University of Bath) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (GB) (ES/J500197/1)
- CAPES Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Keywords
- student samples, cross-cultural comparison, Big Five personality traits, attitudes, embeddedness, intellectual autonomy, sampling bias, replication crisis, cross-national comparison
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Psychological Tests, Students, Knowledge, Young Adult
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