I don't think that people use Mechanical Turk as their sole source for money. If I remember correctly, someone figured out that mechanical turk pays roughly $5/hour if you spend your whole day doing it. That's not very much.
Mechanical Turk seems to be filled with people itching for some community to participate in -- why not get paid for it at the same time?
I actually agree with both of you. MTurk is not solely about the money - but there is enough money in the system for it to be the main motivating force.
Getting honest feedback probably depends very heavily on survey design, instruction sets, and, if you've been doing it for a while, reputation.
With a jobs size this small you'll get information that might be useful, but will probably be biased. I wouldn't trust it - but I would use it as a starting place.
For the incredibly low price I think it's worth it.
I've run an MTurk survey as well and asked standard demographic information. My results are surprisingly in line with national averages. I ran the survey at the suggestion of someone with much more experience running MTurk surveys, who claims he has verified that the results are better than typical phone and mall campaigns.
>I've run an MTurk survey as well and asked standard demographic information. My results are surprisingly in line with national averages.
Do MTurkers tell the truth though? Presumably one person can run a dozen fronts so that they can answer questions that require a specific demographic. Or they masquerade as elderly females to appear more trustworthy and shame you out of objecting if they've not done the job properly or whatever.
A study came out saying that most people on AMT use it because they're bored as an alternative to games or whatever else since if they're going to be bored on the internet they might as well make some money even if an insignificant amount.
Mechanical Turk seems to be filled with people itching for some community to participate in -- why not get paid for it at the same time?