On Advertisements and Demographics

One interesting thing about the lab is how we recruit individuals to participate in our study. Currently, our lab employs two methods of advertising for participants: through newspapers and the internet. We post ads on the Village Voice, AM New York, and Craigslist. These are all free publications and websites, which ensures that we are not excluding any demographic that wouldn't pay for these services (we would be targeting a different group of people if we were advertising in the New York Times). Additionally, there are a number of people who claim to have heard of the study through a friend or family.

Most people who call in say that they saw the advertisement in AM New York, a few say that they saw it in the Village Voice, and almost none say they saw it on Craigslist. There are a few explanations on why this happens, all of which probably reflects and interacts with the demographics that we deal with in the study. Our study is mostly populated by lower class black and hispanic males between the ages of 20-35. Thus, newspapers that are distributed for free, especially if they are distributed in high-traffic areas of public transportation, would more directly target the demographic that is likely to inquire about our study.

Craigslist has always struck me as an interesting case, since very few of our participants say that they heard about our study through the website. I have a few hypotheses on why this may be true. Could it be that men of minority backgrounds use the internet less? PewResearch (www.pewinternet.org) data says that this is true, but only slightly. The same website shows the data that economic factors play a larger role, stating that those who make over $75,000 a year are almost a 1/4 more likely to use the internet than those who make less than $30,000 a year. Other factors might include the general perception of newspapers as a tool to find jobs, rather than Craigslist, which is much newer and may only be thought of as a marketplace to those who are less familiar with the website.

However, even though we realize that Craigslist is less effective at drawing in participants, it is a free service, so we will continue to use it in order to spread the word about the study.