Cutting-edge social science research methods have never been more crucial than in our contemporary digital age, where developments in Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning are raising vital questions about the balance between the quality and quantity of information across a range of different institutional contexts. Despite this, much research in behavioural science continues to be wedded to cognitivist and linguistic methodological frameworks of the past that are patently unable to account for the complex unconscious and technologically mediated nature of contemporary social life. This course is designed to address the question of how to research behaviour when the dualism between the human and technology is increasingly blurred. This team-taught course will be organized into four key thematic blocks (Experimentation and the Digital; Human Performance; Assemblage and Network Methods; Research Ethics in a Digital Age) which will give students the opportunity to put theories and concepts encountered in other core Behavioural Science courses into practice. Through weekly readings, online discussions, and practical activities, students will be introduced to cutting-edge methods and techniques at the forefront of contemporary behavioural and social science research, equipping them with the skills they need to produce innovative and timely research on the needs, attitudes, opinions, desires, and motivations of different communities and populations.
