Testees

Questionnaires and interviews

These experiments are easy, quick, but also the lowest paying. Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and their lackey grad students usually run them, so if you can endure these armchair social reformers without falling asleep, you'll be able to find lots of experiments. These types of studies usually involve an interview or questionnaire for you to fill out, or in some cases looking at images and describing your feelings toward them (usually through multiple choice questions).

We'll tell you upfront that these are incredibly easy and a great way to make some extra cash. This is an especially attractive option for college students, since you can just walk around campus and find out what studies are taking place.

What it generally pays: Between $5-$20, depending on how long it takes. If you're in college, many professors will give you extra credit in lieu of cash for helping their grad students with a particular study.

Possible risks: Extreme boredom, and you sometimes have to return for follow-up sessions.

Medical exams and/or interviews:

Many researchers are interested in the correlation between one's general health and his/her stress levels, anger management, or other mental factors - this is where you cash in. For Type I exams, you usually are subjected to a lengthier examination that will probably involve a general physical (height, weight, blood pressure, etc.), and then answer questions about your mental health.

(By the way, if you do become a human guinea pig, you'll hear the word "correlation" a lot - if researchers don't find a "positive correlation," they'll become the money-wasting Kevin Costners of the scientific community.)

What it generally pays: The range is wide, but you could pocket anywhere from $20-$100.

Possible risks: A cold stethoscope, the revelation of private information, and time.

Sleep studies

Grab your PJs and your teddy bear, because you could get paid to have a slumber party. Well, kinda. Sleep studies, commonly performed by psychiatrists, usually involve interviews/questionnaires, or even induced anxiety (from a mild electric shock) before you go to sleep. Then, through EKG tests and videotape, your sleep patterns will be closely observed.

These studies do require a decent amount of time - usually one or more (but not necessarily consecutive) nights, these sleep studies are usually pretty lucrative. Plus, the risks are tiny, and you can pretend you're staying in a hotel (albeit without the ice machine and little soaps). It won't necessarily be comfortable-perhaps you'll be asked to stay awake for as long as you can - but it won't be dangerous.

What it generally pays: Usually about $100 per night, for about one to three nights.

Possible risks: Freddy Krueger.

Experiments involving alcohol or illegal drugs

Attention college students, drug addicts, alcoholics, and Robert Downey, Jr.: some experiments will pay you to ingest illegal drugs or drink alcohol! However, because of the dangerous nature of illegal drugs, these trials are very rare, and usually only performed on real guinea pigs. When these experiments are allowed, rest assured that you will be closely monitored to make sure that nothing disastrous happens.

The alcohol studies are more common - you'll have to drink a certain amount of alcohol and then answer questions and/or have tests performed on you. These also usually take place over more than one session, and you have to be at least 21 years old.

What it generally pays: Anywhere from $50-$100s.

Possible risks: With illegal drugs, addiction or violent reactions could occur - but this is why these trials are rarely performed. And while the risk of alcohol poisoning is very small, you could wind up getting silly with the stethoscopes.

Clinical trials for experimental drugs

This means that you'll be taking a drug that has yet to be officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But don't worry; it won't be some elixir mixed in a bathtub. You can do that on your own time.

There are different types of clinical drugs trials, the simplest involving a small number of volunteers taking the drug over a certain period of time to test its safety in the human body.

A second type is where patients who have a specific ailment can really benefit, and also really help future patients. These are called double-blind placebo trials:

Volunteers with a certain ailment (e.g. allergies, acne, hypertension, AIDS, etc.) are recruited.

Patients are randomly assigned into either a group taking the real medication or a placebo, which is a fake pill with no "real" medication in it. Neither the patients nor the researchers know if the patient is taking the real medicine or the placebo. The reason that scientists use placebos is to make sure that the "cure" to an ailment isn't purely mental.

At the end of the trial, the volunteers find out what they were taking. If the researchers feel that people who take the real medication show significant improvement, then the placebo group will get the medication for free and the researchers will use the study as evidence that the drug should be available to all.
Recently, those pesky ethicists have made an outcry against these types of trials, claiming that it isn't right to withhold the drug to those with the ailment. However, if the researchers determine that the drug has a substantial benefit, they can halt the trial early and give everyone the treatment. Besides, the only way to figure out if a medication really works is to compare people who do take it with people who don't.

If you're worried about bad reactions or side effects of the medication, it's a valid concern. But doctors will always go to great lengths to make sure you're safe. So as long as you answer all the doctor's questions honestly, any bad reaction will be a completely freak occurrence. If this bugs you out, then don't participate in these trials.

For more information about clinical trials, click here.

What it usually pays: Up to a few hundred dollars; however, some do not pay anything because the free treatment is considered the compensation.

Possible risks: Side reactions to a drug, either mild or severe, although it's very rare. These also usually require many tests and a large time commitment.

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/guineapig/guineapig.html

I definitely wasn't crazy about the first episode, but as a big "Kenny vs. Spenny" fan I'm willing to give it some time.

like balls?

I used to guinea pig for headache medicines. It lasted a few months and I got a thousand dollars and night terrors.

last nights episode was pretty funny. better then the pilot.

DISCUSS!