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Social Process Tracing Methods (SPTE)

What is the social process tracing method?

SPTE Overview

Katz and Lazarsfeld’s (1955) two-step flow of information has long played a crucial role in theory building and theory-testing. However, most lab experiments have had to focus on either information search and acquisition (with little attention to social interaction), or interpersonal communication and spread (with less attention to information search). We introduce a design that draws on both social and psychological traditions, leveraging each one’s strengths and overcoming each’s limitations. The social process tracing experiment (SPTE) is an experiment with two phases: First, subjects participate individually in a task within the contours of Lau and Redlawsk’s (1997; 2006) canonical DPTE design – they interact with a dynamic information board with the goal of collecting information and coming to a decision. Second, participants are placed into small deliberative groups and provided with a discussion task that encourages the dissemination of the information from the first stage (e.g., debating fictional candidates). By tracing subjects’ exposure to information and asking questions after each stage, researchers can isolate both content-related and process-related dimensions of the two-step flow of information.

Where can you read more about the SPTE in practice?

Makse, Todd, Drew Seib, and Anand Sokhey. Shifting the Conversation about Early Voting. (Accepted at Cambridge University Press, Elements in Experimental Political Science Series).

Link to Cambridge Here

What are the basic steps to implement a SPTE?

  1. Schedule participants for an in-person or video-conference session
  2. Informed Consent
  3. Pre-survey
  4. DPTE Campaign
  5. Vote/Post-Survey 1
  6. Stop all participants on a page so others can catch up.
  7. Assign to Zoom breakout rooms or other similar videoconferencing apps that permit assigning users to breakout rooms.
  8. Drop in on participants in their break out rooms to make sure everyone is there and they are not having any problems
  9. Drop in on participants in breakout rooms to give a time warning (e.g. 5 minutes until we will close breakout rooms).
  10. SPTE survey: This survey asks questions about the overall breakout room conversation, the participants involvement in the breakout room, and also uses a name generator to ask question about each of the participants in breakout room.
  11. A final post surveys to track attitudes/judgement changes after interacting the the SPTE environment.
  12. Debriefing

Where can I find the SPTE survey?

Great news! You don't have to go far. We have a pre-built one for you to use inside our environment. Once you are logged in and have created your first "campaign," find the card that says "Organize your Project." Make sure that SPTE is active (checked) and in the correct order. That's all you have to do.

Is there a code book to go along with the SPTE survey?

Yes! Once you are logged in and have created your first "campaign," find the card that says "Data." Click the button that says "Codebook," and one will download as PDF.