Compare methods

	Factorial Survey Experiment	Survey Experiment
Field	Political Science	Political Science
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1982	2011
Originator	Peter H. Rossi and collaborators	Experimental political science; synthesized by Diana Mutz
Type	Multi-factor randomized vignette experiment	Randomized experiment embedded in a survey
Seminal source	Wallander, L. (2009). 25 Years of Factorial Surveys in Sociology: A Review. Social Science Research, 38(3), 505–520.	Mutz, D. C. (2011). Population-Based Survey Experiments. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691144528
Aliases	Factorial survey, Factorial survey approach, Multi-factor vignette survey, Rossi vignette method	Population-based survey experiment, Survey-embedded experiment, Question-wording experiment, Framing experiment
Related	3	4
Summary	A factorial survey experiment, often simply called a factorial survey, asks respondents to judge short descriptions — vignettes — whose multiple features are fully crossed and randomly varied. By factorially combining many dimensions, each at several levels, the design generates a large universe of vignettes; respondents rate a random sample of them, and regression of the ratings on the dimension levels recovers the independent causal effect of each feature on judgment. It scales the single-scenario vignette experiment up to many simultaneously manipulated attributes.	A survey experiment embeds a randomized experiment inside a survey: respondents are randomly assigned to different versions of a question, frame, or stimulus, and their answers are compared to estimate a causal effect. By combining the internal validity of randomization with the representative samples and rich measurement of survey research, survey experiments — especially population-based ones — let political scientists draw causal inferences about how information, framing, or message attributes shape public attitudes and behavior.