From September 10 to 12, 2025, the MethodsNET conference will take place for the second time in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The conference is organized by the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and GESIS – Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences, among others. The event brings together international experts in research methods and their users, as well as learners from various disciplines and career stages, to exchange ideas on current developments, approaches, and projects.
Dr. Marco Wähner, postdoctoral researcher within CAIS program “Research Data & Methods”, presents his research findings titled “Modeling Individual Choices in Online Participation: The Use of Stated Preference Experiments in Social Science Research” on Thursday, September 11, as part of the conference panel “Modeling Choice in Society” (08:30 AM to 10:00 PM). He presents the results of a Stated Preference Experiments and explains the method used in detail.
Abstract
In social science research, there is strong interest in explaining individual decisions: where people live, how they travel, or which political party they support. This presentation offers a methodological contribution to studying such decisions through stated preference experiments (SPE) and the application of discrete decision models, using online political participation as an example. It presents the design and results of an SPE conducted among students (n = 203). While factorial surveys are well established in sociology, with robust findings on reliability and validity (Auspurg et al. 2009; Wallander 2009), SPEs remain less commonly applied in social sciences (Liebe and Meyerhoff 2021). In SPEs, respondents choose their preferred option from various alternatives defined by differing attributes. Discrete choice models estimate the separate effects of these attributes on choices, based on random utility theory (McFadden 1986), which posits a utility function with systematic (attribute-based) and random components. The appeal of discrete choice models lies in their alignment with rational actor theory and statistical modeling (Liebe and Meyerhoff 2021), distinguishing them from conjoint analysis (Louviere et al. 2010). The example application explores motivations for online political participation. Students were presented with varying conditions for participating in a consultation process to assess whether motives differ across social groups. The paper further discusses the validity and reliability of the method, along with challenges, potential applications, and future research directions.
Further information about the conference can be found on the website:
https://methodsnet.org/conference/2nd-methodsnet-conference/