Demand characteristics
Encyclopedia
In research, and particularly psychology
, demand characteristics refers to an experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment's purpose and unconsciously change their behavior accordingly. Pioneering research was conducted on demand characteristics by Martin Orne. Typically, they are considered a confounding variable, exerting an effect on Behavior
other than that intended by the experimenter.
A possible reason for demand characteristics is the expectation from the participant that he or she will somehow be evaluated and thus figures out a way to 'beat' the experiment to attain good scores in the alleged evaluation.
Weber and Cook have described some demand characteristics as involving the participant taking on a role in the experiment. These roles include:
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, demand characteristics refers to an experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment's purpose and unconsciously change their behavior accordingly. Pioneering research was conducted on demand characteristics by Martin Orne. Typically, they are considered a confounding variable, exerting an effect on Behavior
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...
other than that intended by the experimenter.
A possible reason for demand characteristics is the expectation from the participant that he or she will somehow be evaluated and thus figures out a way to 'beat' the experiment to attain good scores in the alleged evaluation.
Weber and Cook have described some demand characteristics as involving the participant taking on a role in the experiment. These roles include:
- The good participant role in which the participant attempts to discern the experimenter's hypotheses and to confirm them.
- The negative participant role in which the participant attempts to discern the experimenter's hypotheses, but only in order to destroy the credibility of the study.
- The faithful participant role in which the participant follows the instructions given by the experimenter to the letter.
- The apprehensive participant role in which the participant is so concerned about evaluation of their answers by the experimenter that the participant behaves in a socially desirable way.