The E-word – On the public acceptance of experiments

•Field experiments are often viewed as the “gold standard” of scientific evidence.•People's skepticism about experiments has compromised their viability in the past.•We study how the phrase “experiment” affects public support for policy evaluation.•A vast majority of our survey respondents supports evaluating education reforms.•The word “experiment” has a precisely estimated zero effect on public support. Randomized experiments are often viewed as the “gold standard” of scientific evidence, but people's skepticism towards experiments has compromised their viability in the past. We study preferences for experimental policy evaluations in a representative survey in Germany (N > 1,900). We find that a majority of 75 % supports the idea of small-scale evaluations of policies before enacting them at a large scale. Experimentally varying whether the evaluations are explicitly described as “experiments” has a precisely estimated overall zero effect on public support. Our results indicate political leeway for experimental policy evaluation, a practice that is still uncommon in Germany.