Students as Subjects in Consumer Behavior Experiments

Abstract

The use of students as subjects in studies of consumer behavior is widespread;1 entire classrooms of potential respondents are readily available to academic researchers at little or no cost. These respondents generally follow instructions rapidly and accurately, and the researcher can claim (at times legitimately) that participating in such studies enriches the students' education. But these advantages obscure the key question: do student responses accurately reflect the behavioral patterns of other consumers? Few would deny that students are consumers, but they typically are psychologically, socially, and demographically different from other segments of the population. The consumer of interest in many marketing studies is the housewife, but the respondents most convenient to marketing professors are, largely, male, undergraduate business students. Are conclusions based on their responses valid when applied to housewives?