What is ecological validity?

Ecological validity is the extent to which research, or findings from an experiment, can be applied to real-life settings - i.e. the "real world".

Lab studies often lack ecological validity as they are done in very controlled settings with particular populations of participants - and so it is difficult to apply the findings from these studies to real life.

Field studies may be regarded to have greater ecological validity as they do occur "in the real world" - however, due to the fact that variables are still controlled (which rarely happens in real life), the ecological validity of such studies are still often put into question.