TSE Lab for Experimental Social Sciences

Run Experiments

All TSE/IAST faculty, Research Fellows and Graduate Students, as well as members of TSM Research can freely use the lab.

Requirements to Run Experiments

• All research conducted through the TSE lab must obtain approval from the TSE Ethics Review Board
• Researchers must properly compensate all subjects for their time
• Researchers cannot deceive participants

Deception

The TSE lab for Experimental Social Sciences has an explicit no-deception policy, which means that deception may not be used in any study for which participants are recruited from TSE lab‘s participant pool.
The no-deception policy is based on ethical standards governing the safe participation of human subjects in research. The principle of respect for persons demands that participants enter the research voluntarily and with adequate information. When deceptive methodologies are used, participants are given incomplete or misleading information about what to expect during the study activities which compromises their ability to give fully informed consent.
This means that researchers are not allowed to 1) tell participants anything that is false, 2) purposefully provide misleading information and 3) withhold information with the intent to deceive.
It is acceptable to state the general purpose of the research and the researcher does not have to disclose specific research questions.
The TSE ethics review board may grant access to the lab facilities if deception is essential to the scientific purpose of the study and there is no way to avoid it. However, researchers will be responsible for recruiting their own participants and they will have to make it clear that their study does not conform to TSE lab’s policies. Specifically, consent forms for these experiments must include the following introductory paragraph:
“You have not been recruited from TSE lab’s own participant pool. Therefore, the experiment for which you have been recruited does not necessarily conform to TSE lab’s policies. For specific questions about the study, please contact the researchers responsible for the study.”
Furthermore, researchers must debrief subjects about the use of deception immediately following their participation.

Lab acknowledgement

All papers based on projects run in the lab must include the following text:
“This research was fully or partly conducted through the TSE lab for Experimental Social Sciences. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the TSE lab for Experimental Social Sciences in conducting their research.”

Ethics

All experimental research conducted through TSE/IAST must obtain approval from its ethics review board. The review board operates consistently with the principles set out in:

• The Charters of the Fundamental Right of the European Union (2000/C 364/0)
• The Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data
• The principles of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies
• The “Toulouse School of Economics: Ethical rules for the conduct of experiments”
• The TSE statement of scientific integrity
• The IAST Ethics Code: link

Participant Rights & Protections

The experiments respect human dignity. During experiments, every participant has the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity.

Students’ academic standing at the University will not be affected in any way by their decision to participate or not in experiments, or by their answers and decisions during the experiments.

Participation is voluntary. Subjects must complete and sign an informed consent form. The persons concerned may freely withdraw consent at any time.

Any discrimination regarding participation in experiments based on sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation will be prohibited, except when required by scientific purposes.

Subjects are paid for their participation in an experimental session. They may be paid according to their decisions and the decisions of the other participants they interacted with. Earnings are confidential. Payment is made so as to ensure that confidentiality is preserved.

Data Collection and Management

Personal data is collected for scientific purposes and not further processed in a way incompatible with those purposes.

All nominative information provided by the subjects when entering their personal profile upon registration is used only for the purpose of conducting experiments in the specified laboratory. This information cannot be given to anyone else and cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Individual data collected from an experiment participant will not be stored in the same files as information about that subject’s identity, nor will identity be disclosed in any research output, unless the individual gives express permission. The reports on the experiments will not allow identification of individual subjects.

Security measures are taken in the laboratory in order to guarantee safe storage of personal data.

Ethics Application 

Applications should be submitted via email to the Chair of the committee (tiziana.assenza@tse-fr.eu). An application consists of the completed and signed application form (scan and send pdf), together with the required supplementary materials. To ensure prompt review, all initial applications should be submitted to the Chair in a single PDF file.

The committee may unanimously approve the application in its current form, or request further information, or reject the current application, explaining the reason(s).

Any approval is granted for a period of 24 months from the approval date; extensions may be granted in response to motivated requests from applicants (additional information may be required to support the request). For sequential projects, approval may be granted for a longer period if a specific, motivated request is made in the original application.

TSE/IAST Ethics application document

TSE/IAST Ethical Standards for Human Subjects Research

TSE/IAST Ethical Rules for the Conduct of Experiments

Participate in Experiments

The TSE Laboratory for Experimental Social Sciences conducts all forms of experimental work in the social sciences. Participants must come to the laboratory located on the level -1 of the TSE building to take part. Participants in experiments receive payment for their time and effort.

Registration for experiments

Registration for TSE laboratory for Experimental Social Sciences is open to anyone in the Toulouse area who is at least 18 years of age. If you are interested in registering for the laboratory subject pool, click on the link below to access the registration form.

See ORSEE's website

Partner

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact Stéphane Cézéra (Lab Manager) or Maxime Derex (Scientific Director).