Skip to main content

Sage Social Science Thesaurus

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

... > contexts > population characteristics > health > public health > epidemiology > epidemiological concepts > natural experiments
... > social science subjects > psychology > social psychology > social psychology research > methods > research methods > natural experiments
... > social science subjects > sociology > anthropology > research/theoretical frameworks > research methods > natural experiments
... > social science subjects > communication and media studies > media studies > media and society > youth and media > research methods > natural experiments
... > contexts > population characteristics > health > public health > epidemiology > statistics and research methods > natural experiments

Preferred term

natural experiments  

Definition

  • Natural experiments are designs that occur in nature and permit a test of an otherwise untestable hypothesis and thereby provide leverage to disentangle variables or processes that would otherwise be inherently confounded. Experiments in nature do not, by definition, have the sort of leverage that traditional experiments have because they were not manufactured to precise methodological detail; they are fortuitous. [Source: Encyclopedia of Research Design; Natural Experiments]

Broader concept

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/natural_experiments

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD