Demand Characteristics
Abstract
One problem with studying people is that their behaviour and experience change as a result of being studied. This means that we can never be certain in psychological research that we are finding out about how people really are. This holds true for all research methods, to a greater or lesser extent, but it is particularly true of experimental methods. Orne’s paper looks at why this might be the case. His review article begins with a brief discussion of some of the social psychological characteristics of the psychology experiment. It moves on to a discussion of demand characteristics , examining what they are, how they might affect research findings, and what can be done about them. The paper includes a number of references to both informal and formal psychology experiments conducted by Orne and his colleagues.
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The study lacked a control condition, so its results could be confounded by demand characteristics and the placebo effect.
“However, as the study lacked a control condition, its results could be confounded by the study’s demand characteristics [30] and the placebo effect, among other things”
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- Authors
- Orne, M. T.
- Corresponding author
- Orne, M. T.
- Venue
- Introducing Psychological Research
- Publisher
- Macmillan Education UK
- Published
- 1996
- Pages
- 395-401
- OpenAlex
- W4246679358
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › General Psychology › Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
- Keywords
- demand characteristics, experimenter effects, experimental validity, Orne
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