The reception of my self-experimentation

Self-experimentation makes some experiments much easier. They might be impossible without it. It can generate plausible new ideas by (a) producing surprising results, which suggest new ideas; and (b) allowing implausible ideas to be cheaply tested. For example, one of my self-experiments showed that seeing faces in the morning raised my mood the next day. Another found that standing more than 8 h while awake made me sleep better. A long article about my self-experimentation (Roberts, 2004) got a chilly reception within my department (psychology). It got a much better reception elsewhere. Blog posts about it led to a popular book (Roberts, 2006) based on one of the results. My self-experimentation combined insider knowledge, outsider freedom, and the motivation of someone who personally benefits from the research — a potent combination.