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Experience Makes a Difference

Academic studies. Career exploration. Community involvement.

We aim to enrich undergraduate education in the Faculty of Social Sciences through fostering unique approaches to learning within the classroom and more actively engaging students in the community, as well as promoting strong relationships between academic studies, career exploration and community involvement.

Laboratory

Laboratory

The Lab Facilities

FAQ & Resources

FAQ & Resources

Frequently Asked Questions and Links to McDSL Resources

Research & Publications

Research & Publications

A comprehensive listing of research activity in McDSL

Register

Register

The registration and scheduling website for McDSL experiments.

Welcome to McDSL

McMaster Decision Science Laboratory is a new, multi-purpose research facility at McMaster University that specializes in empirical research into human decision making in a controlled environment.  McDSL is comprised of several flexible spaces equipped with state-of-the-art technology that allow for work in both quantitative and qualitative research involving human participants. 

Our facilities include an advanced Experimental Computer Suite with 22 networked computers suitable for controlled experimental work in decision making; a large Focus Group Room equipped with HD video recording suitable for qualitative observation and group market research, along with an adjacent viewing room, and; two small private Interview Rooms with HD recording suitable for intimate interviews.  McDSL is also equipped with HTC Vive VR wireless headsets and super-fast custom built computers designed to run virtual-reality, decision experiments.  

McDSL continues to facilitate the traditional, laboratory-based, controlled experimental and observational study approach we helped pioneer over the past 25 years in the McMaster Experimental Economics Laboratory - one of the world's first experimental economics laboratories established in 1994.   And we continue to innovate as part of the vanguard of new technologically advanced work into human decision making and online studies.   

McDSL supports university and private industry researchers interested in using laboratory-based, computerized experimental and high-tech observational methods to explore decision-making.   We are open to host and work with researchers from all fields of study.  As of September 2022, McDSL is open and running in-person sessions and online research. McDSL is led by Academic Director, Professor Bradley Ruffle and Manager, David Cameron.