Two of the most popular populations for convenience sampling used in the psychological sciences are college students and Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers. College students represent a traditional type of convenience sample, whereas MTurk workers provide a more modern source of data. However, little research has examined how these populations differ from each other in salient characteristics. Additionally, no research to date has investigated how MTurk college students (a traditional sample collected using modern methods) compare to either population. The current study examined 1,248 participants comprising three samples: MTurk noncollege workers (n = 533), MTurk college students (n = 385), and traditional college students (n = 330). We compared the samples on demographic characteristics, study completion time, attention, and individual difference variables (i.e., personality, social desirability, need for cognition, personal values, and social attitudes). We examined the individual difference variables in terms of mean responses, internal consistency estimates, and subscale intercorrelations. Results indicated the samples were distinct from each other in terms of all variables assessed; in addition, adding demographic characteristics as covariates to the analyses of individual difference variables did not effectively account for sample differences. We conclude that research using convenience samples should take these differences into account.

在心理学领域中，方便抽样中最受欢迎的两个人群是大学生和机械特克（MTurk）工人。大学生代表传统类型的便利样本，而MTurk工作者提供了更现代的数据源。但是，很少有研究检查这些人群在显着特征上有何不同。此外，迄今为止，尚无研究调查MTurk大学生（使用现代方法收集的传统样本）与这两个人群的比较情况。本研究调查了1,248名参与者，包括三个样本：MTurk非大学工作者（n = 533），MTurk大学生（n = 385）和传统大学生（n= 330）。我们比较了样本的人口统计学特征，研究完成时间，注意力和个体差异变量（即人格，社会需求，认知需求，个人价值观和社会态度）。我们从均值响应，内部一致性估计和子量表互相关性方面检查了个体差异变量。结果表明，在所有评估变量方面，样本彼此不同。此外，将人口统计学特征作为协变量添加到各个差异变量的分析中并不能有效地说明样本差异。我们得出结论，使用便利性样本进行的研究应考虑这些差异。