{"id":6518,"date":"2026-02-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/?p=6518"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T21:41:13","slug":"calling-dibs-ep-112","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/2026\/02\/25\/calling-dibs-ep-112\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling DIBS Ep 112: When Are A\/B Tests Experiments?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/ubc.ca.panopto.com\/Panopto\/Pages\/Viewer.aspx?id=ae4bfa1e-07a7-4dd4-a596-b3ed01633704\">Episode 112<\/a>: <\/strong>&#8220;When Are A\/B Tests Experiments?&#8221; with Dave Hardisty, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at UBC Sauder School of Business<br><em>(37 minutes; posted Feb. 25, 2026) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dave Hardisty returns to the podcast to talk about A\/B tests, which are a popular and useful tool to help us determine which version of something works best. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0167811624001149\">A\/B tests run on online platforms<\/a> like Google and Facebook aren&#8217;t actually true experiments because of the way platforms try to optimize engagement for each version. Dave shares why this matters, options for online true experiments, and best practices for online platform A\/B tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:15%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/files\/2022\/07\/Calling-DIBS-icon-300x300.png\" alt=\"Calling DIBS podcast logo\" class=\"wp-image-2623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/files\/2022\/07\/Calling-DIBS-icon-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/files\/2022\/07\/Calling-DIBS-icon-50x50.png 50w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/files\/2022\/07\/Calling-DIBS-icon.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:85%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>For the full list of podcast episodes plus transcripts, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/podcast\/\">Calling DIBS page on the BI wiki<\/a> or subscribe via major podcast platforms like <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/ca\/podcast\/calling-dibs\/id1618687227?ign-itscg=30200&amp;ign-itsct=podcast_box_link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/1dMdl3GFBt724LidAq07cW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.ca\/podcasts\/ee67542a-5d1c-4a28-9afb-aa84927bb325\/calling-dibs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon Music<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave Hardisty discusses when online A\/B tests are and are not experiments, why this matters, options for online true experiments, and best practices [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28042,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,24,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-calling-dibs","category-media","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6518"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6684,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions\/6684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/biwiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}