10 Psychology Experiments You Can Run in High School (and Actually Turn Into a Research Paper)
If you’ve ever wondered why your friends copy each other’s opinions, why a “50% off” sign feels more exciting than it should, or why cramming the night before a test never really works, you already have the instincts for psychology research. You don’t need a lab or a grant to test these questions. You need a clear idea, a few willing classmates, and a plan for running things ethically.
Why Psychology Experiments Are Such a Good Way Into Academic Research
Psychology doesn’t ask much of you upfront. No expensive equipment, no specialised lab, no years of prerequisite coursework. What it does ask for is a clear hypothesis and a respect for the people helping you test it. That’s exactly why so many students use it as their first real taste of academic research, and why it stands out on a college application when you’ve actually designed and run something instead of just writing about a topic you read online.
If part of your plan is to keep going after high school, maybe as a research scholar, maybe through a summer program, psychology experiments teach you the whole cycle: ask a question, control your variables, collect data, and figure out what it means. That’s the same process used at a university, just at a smaller scale.
Get the Ethics Right Before You Run Your Psychology Experiments
Before you pick a study, think less like a curious student and more like the person who has to approve it. Three things to check every time:
- Consent. Do people know what they’re signing up for, in plain language?
- Minimal risk. Could this cause someone embarrassment, distress, or discomfort? If so, rework it.
- Debrief. Will you tell participants the real purpose afterwards, especially if you used any kind of cover story?
Build this habit early. It’s what separates a project you’re proud to submit from one you’d rather not explain to an admissions reader.
10 Psychology Experiments You Can Try This Year
Below are ten psychology experiments you can genuinely pull off in high school, plus how to write them up the way a real research paper is written.
1. The Anchoring Effect
Anchoring is the tendency to let the first number you see shape every guess that follows, even when that number has nothing to do with the question. It’s one of the most replicated findings in behavioral science, and it explains everything from why a “was Rs. 200, now Rs. 89” tag feels like a deal to why negotiations often hinge on who names a figure first.
To test it, ask one group to guess how many countries are in Africa after first showing them the number “10,” and ask a second group the same question after showing them “65.” The number is meaningless, but you’ll likely see guesses cluster near whichever anchor each group saw. All you need is two printed surveys and a few dozen participants split into the two groups.
2. Selective Attention (The Invisible Gorilla)
Selective attention is the idea that your brain filters out most of what’s in front of you so it can focus on the task at hand, and that filtering can be so aggressive that you miss things that seem impossible to miss. It’s the reason drivers can look directly at a cyclist and still not “see” them.
To test it, film a short clip of people passing a ball back and forth and ask viewers to count the passes out loud. Partway through, have someone in a costume walk right through the middle of the shot. A surprising number of viewers won’t notice the costume at all, because they were busy counting.
3. Cognitive Dissonance and Effort Justification
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort people feel when their actions and beliefs don’t align, and effort justification is one way the brain resolves it: if you can’t easily explain why you did something unpleasant, you convince yourself you must have enjoyed it more than you actually did.
To test it, give two groups the exact same boring task, but tell one group it’s part of important research and the other that it’s just filler. Afterwards, ask both groups how much they actually enjoyed the task. The group that had less external justification for doing it tends to rate it more positively.
4. The Halo Effect
The halo effect is what happens when one positive trait about a person, often something as surface-level as attractiveness, quietly bleeds into how we judge unrelated qualities like their intelligence or trustworthiness. It’s a big part of why first impressions are so hard to shake.
To test it, pair a photo with a short, unrelated biography and ask people to rate the person’s intelligence or trustworthiness. Swap out the photo while keeping the bio identical, and compare the ratings across groups. The “better-looking” photo usually pulls the other ratings up along with it.
5. Emotional Contagion
Emotional contagion is the tendency for moods to spread between people through ordinary contact, tone of voice, body language, energy, without anyone consciously trying to influence anyone else. It’s a big part of why one enthusiastic teacher can shift the mood of an entire classroom.
To test it, have someone interact with participants one at a time while acting either upbeat or flat and low-energy, then ask each participant to rate their own mood right after the interaction. The differences between the two conditions show how directly emotions transfer between people, with real relevance to research about education and classroom dynamics.
6. The Spacing Effect
The spacing effect is the well-documented finding that information sticks better when you study it in short sessions spread out over time, rather than cramming it all into one sitting, even if the total study time is identical.
To test it, split a group of volunteers in two. Have one group study a list of facts all at once, and have the other study the same list in short sessions spread across a few days. A quiz given to both groups afterward almost always favors the spaced-out group, which makes this one of the more practically useful experiments on this list.
7. Self-Serving Bias
Self-serving bias describes how people tend to credit their own ability when things go well, but blame outside factors, bad luck, unclear instructions, an unfair task, when things go badly. It’s a small, everyday way people protect their self-image.
To test it, give participants a simple skill-based task, then ask each one to explain their own performance afterward. Compare the explanations given by people who did well against those given by people who did poorly, and you’ll usually see the pattern show up clearly.
8. Choice Overload
Choice overload is the counterintuitive finding that having more options doesn’t make people happier with their decision. It often makes the decision harder to make and less satisfying once it’s made.
To test it, offer one group a choice between 3 options and another group a choice between 15 options from the same category, then time how long each group takes to decide and ask how satisfied they feel afterward. The larger set usually produces slower decisions and lower satisfaction, which says a lot about what it feels like to face a college search with hundreds of schools to sort through.
9. The Framing Effect
The framing effect shows that how a choice is worded can change people’s decisions, even when the underlying facts are exactly the same. It’s the difference between hearing “90% survival rate” and “10% mortality rate” – identical numbers, very different reactions.
To test it, describe the same medical treatment or scenario to two groups, phrasing it positively for one group and negatively for the other. Ask each group how willing they’d be to choose it, and compare the responses.
10. Social Loafing
Social loafing is the tendency for people to put in less individual effort when they’re working as part of a group than when they’re working alone, because responsibility feels diffused across everyone involved.
To test it, have participants complete a simple effort-based task – pulling a rope, cheering, brainstorming ideas – either alone or as part of a group, and measure individual effort in each condition. Effort per person tends to drop as the group gets bigger, which has obvious implications for how you structure group projects.
Writing Up Your Psychology Experiments as a Research Paper
Running the study is only half the job. To turn it into an actual research paper, structure it the way academic journals do:
- Abstract: a short summary of your question, method, and findings.
- Introduction: Background on the topic and your hypothesis.
- Method: Who your participants were, what materials you used, and exactly what you did.
- Results: Your data, even if it’s just averages or percentages.
- Discussion: What it means, what its limits are, and what you’d test next.
Reading a published research paper example in social psychology before you write your own is one of the fastest ways to pick up the tone and structure reviewers expect.
Where a Mentorship Program Comes In - YSRP
A solid high school experiment is often just the starting point. Plenty of students use a project like this as their entry ticket into something bigger, a summer undergraduate research fellowship, a research internship, or an undergraduate research opportunities program where you’re paired with a PhD student or faculty member for months instead of weeks.
This is where a good mentorship program earns its keep. Being connected with a mentor from a school like Stanford University, Rice University, or another research-heavy university turns a classroom demonstration into something you’d actually want to submit to a student research competition or list as academic research on your application.
You can also consider joining The Young Scholars Research Program (YSRP) by Makers’ Muse for proper guidance and mentorship.
Using This for Your College Application
Admissions readers see plenty of students who list “interested in psychology.” Far fewer show up with a completed research paper, a clear method section, and real data they collected themselves. If you’re building toward a college application, a self-run project like this, even a small one, tells a much more specific story than a class grade ever could.
Conclusion
You don’t need a university lab to start doing real psychology research. The ten experiments above are safe, low-cost, and genuinely informative, and any one of them can become a research paper you’re proud to show someone.
If you want to take it further, working with a mentor who’s been through the process, as a research scholar, a grad student, or a professor, is usually the fastest way to go from a classroom project to something that actually stands out.
