What are demand characteristics?

What are demand characteristics?

• A. The random allocation method.
• B. The manipulation of the IV.
• C. The measure of the DV.
• D. Any cue from the researcher or research situation that can be interpreted by participants as revealing the purpose of the investigation, leading them to change their behaviour.

Answer: (D)

Demand characteristics are cues in the research situation that hint at the study’s purpose and lead participants to change their behavior to fit those expectations. They can come from the experimenter’s behavior, the setting, or how questions are phrased. Because participants try to guess what the study is about and act accordingly, the results may reflect those guesses rather than the actual effect of the manipulated variable, which can threaten internal validity. The other options describe how participants are assigned to groups, how the independent variable is changed, or how the outcome is measured, not the cues that guide participants’ behavior. To reduce demand characteristics, researchers use standardized procedures, blind or double-blind designs, or deception where ethical, and they test procedures in pilot studies to spot potential cues.

Demand characteristics are cues in the research situation that hint at the study’s purpose and lead participants to change their behavior to fit those expectations. They can come from the experimenter’s behavior, the setting, or how questions are phrased. Because participants try to guess what the study is about and act accordingly, the results may reflect those guesses rather than the actual effect of the manipulated variable, which can threaten internal validity. The other options describe how participants are assigned to groups, how the independent variable is changed, or how the outcome is measured, not the cues that guide participants’ behavior. To reduce demand characteristics, researchers use standardized procedures, blind or double-blind designs, or deception where ethical, and they test procedures in pilot studies to spot potential cues.