The Behavioral Lab accommodates a variety of innovative human behavior experiments in areas such as marketing and decision science, strategy, and leadership to help maximize the research productivity of Michigan Ross faculty and PhD students.
Conduct high-quality research to investigate how people think, act, and make decisions using computer and paper-based experiments, as well as focus groups and in-person studies. The Behavioral Lab facilitates studies online and on-site, offering facilities and spaces ideal for research on interpersonal communication or small group dynamics.
- Administering Research Experiments and Surveys
- Lab space scheduling
- Research Staffing
- Survey Testing / Data Quality
- Work Automation with human workers
- IRB liaison and advice: We support researchers in meeting IRB requirements for their studies.
- Participant Payments: Assistance is available for managing participant payments, either through the HSIP program through U-M finance, or through funding Mturk/Prolific/Connect accounts.
- Participant Recruitment and Panel Management: The lab maintains our own pool of participants interested in participating in research for pay. We maintain the student pool of participants completing their MKT/MO course-related student research requirements. We also facilitate locating appropriate research subjects, as well as running online research studies with Mturk, Prolific, Connect, Lucid marketplace, and linking to other third party panels.
- Research Assistant Hiring and Management: The lab hires and maintains a pool of student RAs who have completed human subjects training. We can help identify and match individual RAs to work on Ross research projects.
Eligibility for behavioral lab services, including the research staff, lab space, and equipment/software, requires a Ross affiliation and IRB approval of academic research for publication in an academic journal.
Usage of the Behavioral Lab, including the research staff, lab space, and inventory, requires the following:
- All research requests must be related to academic research for publication in an academic journal.
- Research projects must be associated with a U-M IRB application for human subjects research, and the IRB application must list Ross faculty in the study team. IRB approval will be required before deployment.
- Research services including survey requests are reserved for Ross faculty and other authorized Ross-affiliated researchers.
The Ross Behavioral Lab manages the Ross Paid Subject Pool, which is a resource for Ross Researchers to contact participants interested in participating in research for payment. Participants in the paid subject pool can be anyone at least 18 years old: an undergraduate student, graduate student, staff member, faculty, or someone unrelated to the university. The pool is largely made up of U-M undergraduate students, but it also includes participants from around the country. Participants in the Ross Paid Subject Pool are notified of upcoming paid experiments run by Ross researchers via email. More information: Ross Paid Pool FAQ
Ross Paid Pool Participant FAQ
Undergraduate Research Student Pool
The Ross Behavioral Lab facilitates the student in-lab research requirement for MKT 300/302 and MO 300. MKT runs in the fall and winter, and MO runs in the fall only. Researchers interested in using the undergraduate student research pool should contact their respective areas (MKT and MO).
MKT Student Pool Researcher FAQ
The Ross Behavioral Lab helps researchers reach the populations of participants they need to complete their research, using:
- Prolific
- mTurk / Cloudresearch
- Connect
- Lucid Marketrplace
Funding
The behavioral lab does not provide funding for subject payments. Faculty and PhD researchers need to secure funding in advance of deployment.
Online Studies
The Ross Behavioral Lab facilitates online payments to research subjects to online panels like Mturk/Prolific/Lucid. The Behavioral Lab can help Ross Researchers by administering the experiments from our central account, but if you want to run them from your own account, the Behavioral Lab can also load your individual MTurk, Cloudresearch, Connect, or Prolific accounts that you manage yourself. Click for detailed info on how the lab can help fund your online research.
The Ross Behavioral Lab also facilitates online payments to research participants through the HSIP (human subject incentive payment) program. Typically, online research participants are paid directly from the university through the HSIP program via check or online visa cards. The lab staff are available to guide researchers on making these payments to subjects. Ross Researchers who submit the HSIP requests for their own research should follow the Ross guidelines here.
In-lab studies
The Ross Behavioral Lab facilitates HSIP payments for in-lab studies via cash payments to participants.
Rooms
The Behavioral Lab is located in room R0425, in the lower level of the main Ross Building 701 Tappan St, Ann Arbor MI 48109.
The Behavioral Lab has several areas for conducting studies and an observation area available for study oversight.
Waiting area for up to 26 participants with 360 degree video camera
Computer Room
- 26 cubicles with laptops, headphones, mice, chairs
- TV displays
Interview Rooms (3 available)
- Two IP cameras
- Audio and video recording
- Equipped with widescreen TV
- Webcam
- Table and chairs
- Up to four participants
Conference/Focus Group Room
- 90” TV display
- Study observation behind a two-way mirror
- Conference table
- Up to 16 participants
- Audio and video recording (ceiling microphones, four ceiling cameras, five individual cameras)
- Three synchronized monitors for simultaneous parallel viewing
Preparation Area
- Lockers for individual researchers
- Kitchen equipped with sink, microwave, full size refrigerator
- Storage
- Laptop cart
Observation Room
- Discrete viewing of the focus group room through two-way mirror
- A/V recording control
Equipment
- BIOPAC Biofeedback Data Acquisition
- Amplifiers for up to 5 simultaneous participants:
- Galvanic skin response/electrodermal activity (GSR/EDA) sensors for recording up to five simultaneous participants
- Heart Rate ECG sensors for recording up to five simultaneous participants
- Respiration belts for recording up to five simultaneous participants
- Electrodes and Gels, biofeedback supplies
- Four Tobii Nano Eyetrackers
- One x Tobii X2-60 Compact eyetracker
- Laptops for 26 participants
- Headphones
- Vending Machine
- Four iPads
Software
Software used in the lab, includes:
- Viso A/V recording software
- Acqknowledge (BioPac)
- Qualtrics
- Tobii Pro
- E-prime
- oTree
- zTree
- Inquisit
- Medialab
- DirectRT
If your study requires additional software licenses, please contact us and we can discuss your needs.
Behavioral lab staffing includes full-time staff members (lab director, lab manager, and lab technician), as well as a pool of student research assistants. The lab manager coordinates the scheduling of research staff. If you would like to request research assistance, please contact the lab.
Please find additional information about lab policies and frequently asked questions: Behavioral Lab Researcher FAQ
Please submit your request to [email protected].
For all inquiries, email us: [email protected]
Location
The Ross Behavioral Lab is located on the lower level of the Ross building R0425, behind the Tozzi center and across from the Och fitness center.
Directions to Ross Behavioral Lab
Collaborators
Ross Sponsored Research: [email protected]
Ross Research Computing: [email protected]
Ross Academic Technology: [email protected]
Ross Canvas: [email protected]
Faculty Research Assistance: [email protected]
Publications
Fan, Y., Orhun, A. Y., & Turjeman, D. (2023). A tale of two pandemics: The enduring partisan differences in actions, attitudes, and beliefs during the coronavirus pandemic. PLOS ONE, 18(10), e0287018.
Hagen, L., Krishna, A., & McFerran, B. (2017). Rejecting Responsibility: Low Physical Involvement in Obtaining Food Promotes Unhealthy Eating. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(4), 619-635.
Hagen, L., Krishna, A., & McFerran, B. (2019). Outsourcing Responsibility for Indulgent Eating to Prevent Negative Affect. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 4(2), 136-146.
Krishna, A., & Hagen, L. (2019). Out of Proportion? The Effect of Leftovers in Eating-Related Affect and Behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 81, 15-26.
Krishna, A., & Orhun, A. Y. (2022). Gender (still) matters in business school. Journal of Marketing Research, 59(1), 191-210.
Masatlioglu, Y., Orhun, A. Y., & Raymond, C. (2017). Intrinsic Information Preferences and Skewness. Revise and resubmit, American Economic Review, 111(10), 2615-2644.
Mayer, D. M., Nurmohamed, S., Treviño, L. K., Shapiro, D. L., & Schminke, M. (2013). Encouraging employees to report unethical conduct internally: It takes a village. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121, 89-103.
Mourey, J., Olson, J., & Yoon, C. (2017). Products as Pals: Engaging with Anthropomorphic Products Mitigates the Effects of Social Exclusion. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(August), 414-431.
Olson, J., McFerran, B., Morales, A., & Dahl, D. (2016). Wealth and Welfare: Divergent Moral Reactions to Ethical Consumer Choices. Journal of Consumer Research, 42(April), 879-896.
Olson, J., & Rick, S. (2023). Subjective Knowledge Differences within Couples Predict Influence Over Shared Financial Decisions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 8(4), 378-389.
Orhun, A. Y. (2018). Perceived motives and reciprocity. Games and Economic Behavior, 109, 436-451.
Nurmohamed, S. (2020). The Underdog Effect: When Low Expectations Increase Performance. Academy of Management Journal.
Sokolova, T., Krishna, A., & Doering, T. (2023). Paper meets plastic: The perceived environmental friendliness of product packaging. Journal of Consumer Research, 50(3), 468-491.