Not with a Bug, But with a Sticker

Chapter 4Here's Something I Found on the Web

“Welcome to side hustles I recommend trying—part one.”

Sarah Frank launched her TikTok video series on July 23, 2021. Her mission was to help her fellow teenagers earn extra money. Frank posted her first video in a series called #sarahsidehustles in front of a whiteboard decorated with motivational quotes, folder cubbies, and picture frames with myriad photos tastefully accented with feathers. She promised to provide ideas her listeners could use to earn extra cash without resorting to delivering for DoorDash or driving for Uber. And her very first recommendation caused a ripple effect.

Fourteen days later, a confused Cornell PhD student took to Twitter to understand why women were flocking to his academic survey about social comparisons and money. His data showed a wild skew in responses that made him question his results: 91 percent of respondents were female. Others also reported skewed data in their own studies, including an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and a doctoral student at Yale. Of the 60 respondents to the Yale survey, only two were men.

In a Twitter comment, one poster noted Frank's recent video on TikTok, which had now gone viral. “This may be far-fetched, but given the timing, the virality of the video, and the user's follower demographics. …” Notably, Frank's TikTok video included the hashtag #prolific.

Prolific is a marketplace for scientists to recruit survey participants. Used by researchers anywhere from ...