How does Prolific ensure participants are real and human?

We use a third-party tool to ID verify all participants are unique and real. We also have over 50 checks that monitor the quality of their responses and detection of LLM use. Learn more here.

How does the quality of Prolific participant responses compare to other online platforms?

When compared to other online recruitment tools, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk, Prolific consistently delivers a high standard of data quality online. See below for published comparative research.

Douglas BD, Ewell PJ, Brauer M (2023) Data quality in online human-subjects research: Comparisons between MTurk, Prolific, CloudResearch, Qualtrics, and SONA. PLoS ONE 18(3): e0279720. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279720

Albert, D.A., Smilek, D. Comparing attentional disengagement between Prolific and MTurk samples. Sci Rep 13, 20574 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46048-5

Pe'er, Eyal and Rothschild, David M. and Evernden, Zak and Gordon, Andrew and Damer, Ekaterina, Data Quality of Platforms and Panels for Online Behavioral Research (January 10, 2021). http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-021-01694-3, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3765448 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3765448

How are Prolific’s participants kept anonymous?

Participants are only known to researchers by their Prolific ID (a unique identifier assigned on the platform). This means study responses and the limited demographic, screening and performance data we make available about participants is pseudonymised (i.e. associated only with that Prolific ID rather than any direct identifiers, such as names or addresses). Any correspondence or interactions with participants on the Prolific platform is also only made via participant’s Prolific ID. Learn more here.

Can I obtain personally identifiable information from Prolific participants?

We take the privacy of participants and the maintenance of their anonymity seriously at Prolific. You cannot ask participants for any information that could risk identifying them directly, e.g. names, addresses and social media accounts. Learn more here about what you cannot ask.

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