Three minutes example of within-subject design, applied research, and ecological validity. Also, you could use it as an excuse to play German club music before class?

Okay. I know there are so many COVID examples out there, but this one is maybe a tiny bit amusing (it involves Berlin dance clubs). It also demonstrates a within-subject research design and ecological validity. It is also a very tiny example that is easy to understand and doesn't require students to understand any psychological theories. Yes, many of you are psychologists teaching statistics, but I think it is vital that we use various examples to ensure that at least one of them will stick for every student.

Patrons waiting outside of the KitKat club. Above them, a banner describing Berlin's COVID-19 mitigation efforts

Emma Hurt/NPR

Anyway. Berlin has a famous dance club culture, which has been under tremendous financial strain due to COVID-19.

Since winter is coming and outdoor options will no longer be possible, the government has sponsored a pilot project to study whether or not clubs can be opened safely if everyone at the club has tested negative for COVID-19. NPR reported on this applied, within-subject design study (a three-minute-long news story you could use in class):

In addition to demonstrating a within-subject, pre-post research design, this is also a good example of ecological validity. God bless the well-intended researchers who thought about replicating a dance club in a university-sponsored research lab. To truly capture how the virus may transmit, they needed to take the research to da club.

For more information on the pilot project, here is a press release from the government. The City of Berlin is paying for this research study because the club district is such a big source of revenue for the city, AND the city has been using tax dollars to keep the clubs afloat during COVID.

UPDATE: ~70% of the participants showed up for the 2nd PCR test, and no new cases of COVID were discovered in that group.

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