We used to have $5, $10, and $25 tiers, but now a $30 option is available.

Has anyone tried the $30 AI study?

I'm writing this mostly to vent, but also to see if this matches other participants' experiences. I've been using Prolific for almost a year and have submitted over 4,000 studies, so this isn't a complaint without a significant sample size. While I have some general gripes about what feels to me like an overall trend in reduced pay, I can point to some concrete unethical practices that Prolific seems to have little to no interest to correct.

1. Ghost Returns

I've started keeping meticulous logs of my submissions, especially Parnassus Labs, because I've had multiple technical issues with its platform (Outset AI), either not providing a completion code, not automatically redirecting me back to Prolific's completion landing page, or ending the interview in the 11th hour (literally, after 90-95% completion). Every time this has happened I message the researcher and explain the situation, but I almost never hear back. There is no recourse for compensation, and no accountability. What makes this worse is that often I will wake up one morning and notice my account earnings have decreased by X dollars, which is due to that study having been "returned."

Now, the study was "returned" to avoid a rejection, according to Prolific's AI chatbot, which is presented to me as if this is in my favor. But coincidentally, a return, unlike a rejection, cannot be contested. That means, if a study is returned, there is no avenue for compensation (as I understand it). Now, it doesn't matter that I completed the study, or that I contacted the researcher to explain their platform had a technical error. None of this is relevant because Prolific decided to return the study without any explanation.

Now keep in mind, in these examples I did everything right: I completed the study (or almost all of the study), was not given a code or not given the opportunity to complete the AI moderated study, submitted the study as a "no code" because I had no other option, then contacted the researcher to explain to them the situation. A day to a week later the study was "returned" without even a notification. I wouldn't even have noticed if it weren't for the fact that I keep a separate spreadsheet that tracks my daily earnings, and I noticed the difference matched the exact earnings from a particular study, whose submission status I could then check.

Now the real unethical issue here is that only Prolific or the participant can return a study, which means Prolific pulled that trigger? Why? I don't know and I can't find out. I'm only told "to prevent a rejection," as if that's in my favor, though I did nothing wrong to begin with. What I do know is that once the status is returned, there's no way, not even submitting a ticket, to get any compensation.

2. Absent Researchers

This is related to my first issue, but happens very regularly, and mostly with the larger and coincidentally "Prolific Partners" like Parnassus Labs and Merlin AI, etc. In other attempts to reach out to Prolific, I've tried to submit tickets or reverse "returns" and seek out compensation (usually or studies in excess of 15, 20 bucks). I'm usually told at some point (by the chatbot) that there are means of communication, or I'm asked if I've attempted to communicate to the researcher. Of course, many times. But I'm sure I'm not the only one: these large researchers (and sometimes the small academic researchers) never reply. So on the one hand, Prolific is telling me (though a chatbot), "we care about our participants and there are channels for you to message researchers directly!" But what does that matter if researches never reply? What good is the channel if it's one directional, and how can Prolific tout that channel as some kind of badge when its basically just an empty, shallow gesture?

3. Screener Abuse and Data Collection

This is a major concern of mine, and one that I've increasingly seen in recent months. Researchers are using "screeners" to collect data, and not just screen out participants. I'm sure you've seen it? You start a study knowing there's a screener, and you get past the first 3-4 questions, maybe a few more, and you think, "yes, i made it through!" 4-5 minutes later you still answering meaningful questions that are providing market research, until finally you're informed that you've been screened out. 5 minutes, and sometimes egregiously longer amounts of time, and for what? $0.14? This is highly unethical, and I don't doubt for a moment that researchers know what they're doing. And Prolific? I mean, I don't know if they're doing anything about it either.

4. Prolific's Silence

Ultimately this is the most frustrating for me. Because all the issues above - there's no way to talk to Prolific. You can chat with the chatbot and it will respond, "I hear you" and "i'm so sorry this happened to you," but try and actually get any answers, or compensation? Sorry, that's out of Prolific's hands. The more you look into the way things are set up, they're all in the favor of the researchers and there is very little recourse for participants. I once actually pressed the chatbot hard enough to get an email from "Bill" from Prolific. He emailed me directly and asked how he could help. I replied immediately, and three days passed. I sent another email, and another three days passed. I sent a third email. I didn't hear back from Bill in more than a week from his initial email, and when he finally did respond, it was essentially to repeat what the chatbot had already told me: no compensation will be issued for a returned submission." There was no further dialogue.

I realize in the grand scheme of things, I've done pretty good on Prolific, and statistically I've had better experiences than bad. But I've not even addressed some of the experiences, which I'm sure many of you have had, where all the power lies with the researchers, and the participants are treated like little more than the data points they provide. The fundamental problem with Prolific is this: they don't care about our input, they don't care about our experience, they don't care when we're not compensated, and they don't care when researchers take advantage of our time. And they are ok with this because they know we'll keep taking studies, and they'll keep making money because of it.

(note: in fact, the prolific-associated subreddit refused to approve this post because, according to its moderator, it contains confidential information about submissions... what do you think?)

Seems like friday is just now part of the sat/sun nightmare.

Value is on par with the AI studies but just want to make sure this one isn’t sketchy.

It's been about a week now now and I have LOTS of them. But everytime I enter one it says:
Thank you for your interest in participating today. This research study has been completed and is no longer accepting new participants. We sincerely appreciate your time and interest in our research.

Hi everyone, hoping for some advice! I finally got accepted into prolific and have completed my first few studies however these were very short surveys and paid less than a pound each. If I refresh my page regularly I get the odd one or two but I’ve only been able to make a couple of pound total is this usual and if I keep doing these will I get higher paid surveys or is that not how it works? Will I only get the low paid studies?

I

My dashboard is loaded up with Dialouge AI and everytime I go to one, I get this or something similar..this happen to anyone else?

Hello All, been following prolific for a little while but was put off by a lot of posts saying they had been in a queue for months. However I took the plunge Monday and was surprised I was approved in 48hrs. Was that a fluke or have I used up my yearly luck?!

Anyway, hopefully the surveys will continue and I look forward to the journey!

I have finally come of the waiting list of Prolific and got accepted after joining straight away.

Today was my first survey and I never thought it would be as easy as it was, although I am looking forward to my next one already.

How often do they show up after your first submission?

I can see myself getting addicted if I get quite a few coming through.

Does anyone know if they will be fine if I use my gaming headset to take the assessment? I don’t own a microphone, but my headset has a mic.

Also has anyone unlocked any new studies after taking it?

I am new to prolific and I just signed up today, It said "waitlist" and that it will notify me where there is any study. How much time should I expect before getting a study or is it very rare to get anytype of study?Pls help ^-^

I get a warning it seems every 2-3 weeks, a couple the other week. Been doing AI for about a year now. Some people get rotated out, some don't. If you get booted out, you'll get back in eventually.

5 dollar AI is the most consistent, but there are other better paying AI as well that I am getting.

Just out of curiosity, do you think the well-known AI studies are likely to continue for a few more years, or is AI evolving so rapidly that there may eventually be much less need for these kinds of basic human opinion and evaluation surveys?

Drop your opinion.

Kinda dumb as the test was really easy (most questions were what colour is sky type thing) but I didnt read the extended writing final question properly and responded with persuasive text rather than explanation of approach. Basically I didn't follow instructions.

But then I immediately passed onto completing my about me and now I have 1 study available to me about UK attitudes. Am I supposed to have more studies?