MIND.set

Data-Method-Monitoring Cluster

Project head: Dr. Susanne Veit

Project team members: Vivian Boerschmann ,  Judith Ehmeir ,  Dr. Elli Zey

Online surveys are a popular and comparatively inexpensive way to capture demographic characteristics, attitudes or retrospective behavior of a large number of people. However, traditional surveys are subject to a number of limitations, such as bias due to social desirability or the restriction to conscious memory content. Indirect tests from social psychological research offer a promising addition to this. Indirect tests record reaction tendencies and spontaneous associations by analyzing reaction times, memory performance, reactions under time pressure and priming effects. Due to the indirect measurement, their results are less influenced by socially desirable response behavior than in classical surveys. The MIND.set project aims to combine the advantages of both research methods. 

MIND.set is an online platform for the creation of currently five indirect tests (Implicit Association Test, Affect Misattribution Procedure, First-Person Shooter Task, Avoidance Task and Source Monitoring Paradigm) for the indirect measurement of spontaneous associations and reaction tendencies to, for example, social groups (often also called implicit bias) and their barrier-free integration into online surveys.  MIND.set was created in outline between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 as part of the NaDiRa short projects (funding: BMFSFJ) and then further developed as a central budget project in the DeZIM.lab and optimized so that it can be made available as a resource by other researchers (the DeZIM research community and beyond) from spring 2025.  

In addition, initial research projects were carried out with MIND.set, for example on the influence of the end device on the test results of indirect tests conducted online (mobile: smartphone or tablet; stationary: desktop computer or laptop) and on the validity of the results of shorter IAT versions. Further studies on the temporal stability and validity of regionally aggregated IAT results and a comparison of IAT results across nine countries are currently in the field or in preparation - and offer an outlook on the possibilities that MIND.set opens up. 

Funding: Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Institutional funding)

Cooperation partner:

There is close cooperation with Iniobong Essien (Leuphana University of Lüneburg), who set up MIND.set together with Susanne Veit and has a high level of expertise in the field of indirect measurement methods, and with Stefanie Hechler (Free University of Berlin, former NaDiRa employee).  

Former employees:  

Hannah Arnu, Hannah Bethge, Laura Scholaske