Amazon Mechanical Turk for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Advantages, Challenges, and Practical Recommendations

We are in almost full agreement with Landers and Behrend's (2015) thoughtful and balanced critiques of various convenience sampling strategies focusing on the four most frequently used data sources in our field. In this commentary, we expand on Landers and Behrend's discussions specifically around Mechanical Turk (MTurk) by providing further supporting voice and/or clarity to the four potential concerns and relative advantages associated with MTurk. We also raise a few additional concerns and challenges to which the current literature does not yet offer definitive answers. We conclude with some practical guidelines summarizing the relative advantages and unique challenges of using MTurk.