Abstract
This article provides an overview of a large-scale web-based survey, commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), designed to investigate sex differences. I describe the background and challenges inherent to Web-based testing, the history and rationale behind this study, the design and implementation, and ethical and methodological considerations in the research design. I also discuss the kinds of data collected from around 255,000 participants, describe basic demographic information about the BBC sample, and examine reliability and validity, both internally and in comparison with other similar studies. I conclude that the dataset was largely reliable, and merits the analyses described later in this special section.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adobe. (2006). Macromedia Flash Player Statistics. Retrieved Sept- ember 12, 2006 from http://www.adobe.com/products/player_ census/flashplayer/
Bagley, C., & Tremblay, P. (1998). On the prevalence of homosexuality and bisexuality in a random community survey of 750 men aged 18 to 27. Journal of Homosexuality, 36, 1–18.
Birnbaum, M. H. (Ed.). (2000). Psychological experiments on the internet. San Diego: Academic Press.
Birnbaum, M. H. (2004). Human research and data collection via the Internet. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 803–832.
Blanchard, R., & Lippa, R. A. (2007). Birth order, sibling sex ratio, handedness, and sexual orientation of male and female participants in a BBC Internet research project. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9159-7
Collaer, M. L., Reimers, S., & Manning, J. T. (2007). Visuospatial performance on an Internet line judgment task and potential hormonal markers: Sex, sexual orientation, and 2D:4D. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9152-1
Ellis, L., Robb, B., & Burke, D. (2005). Sexual orientation in United States and Canadian college students. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34, 569–581.
Gosling, S. D., Vazire, S., Srivastava, S., & John, O. P. (2004). Should we trust web-based studies? A comparative analysis of six preconceptions about Internet questionnaires. American Psychologist, 59, 93–104.
Gough, H. G., & Bradley, P. (1996). California psychological inventory manual. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Johnson, J. A. (2005). Ascertaining the validity of individual protocols from Web-based personality inventories. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 103–129.
Krantz, J. H., & Dalal, R. (2000). Validity of Web-based psychological research. In M. H. Birnbaum (Ed.), Psychological experiments on the Internet (pp. 35--60). San Diego: Academic Press.
Lenhart, A., Horrigan, J., Rainie, L., Allen, K., Boyce, A., Madden, M., et al. (2003). The ever-shifting Internet population: A new look at Internet access and the digital divide. Retrieved August 3, 2006 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/IP_Shifting_et_Pop_ Report.pdf
Lippa, R. A. (2007a). Sex differences and sexual orientation differences in personality: Findings from the BBC Internet survey. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Lippa, R. A. (2007b). The relation between sex drive and sexual attraction to men and women: A cross-national study of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9146-z
Lippa, R. A. (2007c). The preferred traits of mates in a cross-national study of heterosexual and homosexual men and women: An examination of biological and cultural influences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9151-2.
Maylor, E. A., Reimers, S., Choi, J., Collaer, M. L., Peters, M., & Silverman, I. (2007). Gender and sexual orientation differences in cognition across adulthood: Age is kinder to women than to men regardless of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9155-y.
Musch, J., & Reips, U. (2000). A brief history of Web experimenting. In M. H. Birnbaum (Ed.), Psychological experiments on the internet (pp. 61–88). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Peters, M., Manning, J. T., & Reimers, S. (2007). The effects of sex, sexual orientation, and digit ratio (2D:4D) on mental rotation performance. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9166-8.
Peters, M., Reimers, S., & Manning, J. T. (2006). Hand preference for writing and associations with selected demographic and behavioral variables in 255,100 subjects: The BBC Internet study. Brain and Cognition, 62, 177–189.
Reimers, S., & Maylor, E. A. (2005). Task switching across the life span: Effects of age on general and specific switch costs. Developmental Psychology, 41, 661–671.
Reimers, S., & Stewart, N. (in press). Adobe Flash as a medium for online experimentation: A test of RT measurement capabilities. Behavior Research Methods.
Reips, U. D. (2002). Standards for Internet-based experimenting. Experimental Psychology, 49, 243–256.
Skitka, L. J., & Sargis, E. G. (2006). The Internet as psychological laboratory. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 529–555.
Silverman, I., Choi, J., & Peters, M. (2007). The hunter-gatherer theory of sex differences in spatial abilities: Data from 40 countries. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-9168-6.
Acknowledgements
The BBC committed a large number of “people hours” and a significant amount of money to implement this Internet survey, and those of us who have had the opportunity to contribute to the study and to use the data are collectively grateful to all those at the BBC who commissioned the project, supported its scientific goals, and who carried out the time-consuming work of actually implementing and testing the Internet survey. To mention a few by name, we are particularly grateful to Sara Woodford, series producer of Secrets of the Sexes, who took the decision to run a large-scale survey, and who allowed funding for the survey to come from the program budget. Special thanks also to Michael Mosley, executive producer of the TV series, Caragh Salisbury, who managed the Web-design project over several months, and to all the others at the BBC involved in designing, overseeing, and implementing the survey, in particular, Pete Harvey, Stephen Mather, and Matt Shearer. We hope that this example of productive collaboration between scientific researchers and the BBC will encourage similar projects in the future.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reimers, S. The BBC Internet Study: General Methodology. Arch Sex Behav 36, 147–161 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9143-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-006-9143-2