The validity of laboratory research in social and behavioral science

The validity of artificial situations is often questioned, and particularly so the possibility of transfer of findings to the real world. Such questio ns, or doubts, may stem from a rigid distinction between real and artificia l situations or from too strict a notion of representation. This article wi ll argue that 'the real world' does not provide unambiguous criteria for re presentation and that, moreover, many experiments and simulation games do n ot have to represent 'the real world' in any direct way. Both issues are us ually treated under the heading of external validity, which means complianc e to conventions that dominated thinking about validity over decades. These conventions need to be reconsidered. Quality standards for research must n ot be rigid, nor should be applied in a way that ignores the characteristic s of a particular research project. Fixed notions about validity may preven t a researcher from adapting validation procedures to the circumstances at hand. The article takes issue with a conception of external validity as sur face resemblance between artificial and real situations, advocates an activ e, non-routine approach to validity questions, and encourages individual re searchers to develop a line of reasoning on these questions instead of adhe ring to standards that may not suit their particular research.