Eksperimenter og politologisk forskning: Muligheder og begrænsninger

Abstract

The past years have witnessed a boom in the use of experiments within political science. Until then, politi- cal science has only reluctantly accepted experiments in its methodological toolbox, while the neighboring disciplines – economics and psychology – have used them extensively for a long time. is article does two things. First, it summarises the basic possibilities and pitfalls associated with the most used experimental designs (laboratory, survey, and eld experiments), while emphasising that the choice between experimental designs is often a tradeo between ability to control for intervening factors and experimental realism. Sec- ond, It emphasises that particularly the growing eld of political psychology has bene tted from the use of experiments. is is mainly due to the endogenous nature of problems related to political psychology, which experiments are excellent to address.