CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,158Psychology of Social InfluenceSocial and Intergroup PsychologyPsychology Research and Bibliometrics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Interpersonal expectancy effects: the first 345 studies

Rosenthal, Robert, Rubin, Donald B.·1978·Behavioral and Brain Sciences
DOI 10.1017/s0140525x00075506
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The research area of interpersonal expectancy effects originally derived from a general consideration of the effects of experimenters on the results of their research. One of these is the expectancy effect, the tendency for experimenters to obtain results they expect, not simply because they have correctly anticipated nature's response but rather because they have helped to shape that response through their expectations. When behavioral researchers expect certain results from their human (or animal) subjects they appear unwittingly to treat them in such a way as to increase the probability that they will respond as expected. In the first few years of research on this problem of the interpersonal (or interorganism) self-fulfilling prophecy, the “prophet” was always an experimenter and the affected phenomenon was always the behavior of an experimental subject. In more recent years, however, the research has been extended from experimenters to teachers, employers, and therapists whose expectations for their pupils, employees, and patients might also come to serve as interpersonal self-fulfilling prophecies. Our general purpose is to summarize the results of 345 experiments investigating interpersonal expectancy effects. These studies fall into eight broad categories of research: reaction time, inkblot tests, animal learning, laboratory interviews, psychophysical judgments, learning and ability, person perception, and everyday life situations. For the entire sample of studies, as well as for each specific research area, we (1) determine the overall probability that interpersonal expectancy effects do in fact occur, (2) estimate their average magnitude so as to evaluate their substantive and methodological importance, and (3) illustrate some methods that may be useful to others wishing to summarize quantitatively entire bodies of research (a practice that is, happily, on the increase).

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1017/s0140525x00075506

Cites

10 of 10 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 42

  1. Keshock J. D. An investigation of the effects of the expectancy phenomenon upon the intelligence, achievement and motivation of inner-city elementary school children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1970.
  2. 10.1080/00224545.1967.9919784 · DOI
  3. Carter R. M. Locus of control and teacher expectancy as related to achievement of young school children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1969.
  4. Elashoff, 1971, Pygmalion Reconsidered
  5. Yarom N. Temporal localization and communication of experimenter expectancy effect with 10–11 year old children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois, 1971.
  6. Todd J. L. Social evaluation orientation, task orientation, and deliberate cuing in experimenter bias effect. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1971.
  7. Thorndike, 1968, Review of Pygmalion in the classroom, American Educational Research Journal, 5, 708
  8. Gravitz H. L. Examiner expectancy effects in psychological assessment: The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Tennessee, 1969.
  9. Anderson D. F. Mediation of teachers' expectancy with normal and retarded children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1971.
  10. Wellons K. W. The expectancy component in mental retardation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1973.
  11. Rosenthal, 1971, Pygmalion Reconsidered, 139
  12. Johnson R. W. Inducement of expectancy and set of subjects as determinants of subjects' responses in experimenter expectancy research. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Manitoba, 1970.
  13. Rosenthal, 1966, Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research
  14. Snedecor, 1967, Statistical Methods
  15. Mosteller, 1954, Handbook of Social Psychology, I, 289
  16. Marwit S. J. An investigation of the communication of tester-bias by means of modeling. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1968.
  17. Rosenthal, Nonverbal communication
  18. Johnson, 1972, Experimenter expectancy vs. systematic recording error under automated and nonautomated stimulus presentation, Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 6, 88
  19. Rosenthal, 1968, Experimenter expectancy and the reassuring nature of the null hypothesis decision procedure, Psychological Bulletin Monograph Supplement, 70, 30
  20. Johnson, 1970, The effects of systematic recording error vs. experimenter bias on latency of word association, Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 4, 270
  21. Hall, 1978, Advances in Psychological Assessment, 4, 179
  22. Beez W. V. Influence of biased psychological reports on “teacher” behavior and pupil performance. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, 1970.
  23. Rosenthal, 1971, Psychology and Educational Practice, 67
  24. Blake, 1971, Evaluation apprehension and subject bias in experiments, Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 5, 57
  25. Rosenthal, 1969, Artifact in Behavioral Research, 181
  26. Barber, 1976, Pitfalls in Human Research: Ten Pivotal Points
  27. Rosenthal, Sensitivity to Nonverbal Communication: The PONS Test
  28. Cohen, 1969, Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
  29. Maxwell M. L. A study of the effects of teacher expectation on the I.Q. and academic performance of children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1970.
  30. Rosenthal, 1973, On the Social Psychology of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Further Evidence for Pygmalion Effects and Their Mediating Mechanisms
  31. Page J. S. Experimenter-subject interaction in the verbal conditioning experiment. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto, 1970.
  32. Rosenthal, 1969, Empirical vs. decreed validation of clocks and tests, American Educational Research Journal, 6, 689
  33. Barber, 1968, Fact, fiction, and the experimenter bias effect, Psychological Bulletin Monograph Supplement, 70, 1
  34. 10.1016/0022-3956(64)90003-2 · DOI · Paper page
  35. Rosenthal, 1975, The Volunteer Subject
  36. Miller K. A. A study of “experimenter bias” and “subject awareness” as demand characteristic artifacts in attitude change experiments. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1970.
  37. Hawthorne J. W. The influence of the set and dependence of the data collector on the experimenter bias effect. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke University, 1972.
  38. Seaver W. B. Jr. Effects of naturally induced teacher expectancies on the academic performance of pupils in primary grades. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, 1971.
  39. Elashoff, 1970, Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching, School of Education
  40. 10.1037/0033-2909.85.4.845 · DOI · Paper page
  41. 10.1037/0033-2909.85.1.185 · DOI
  42. Mayo C. C. External conditions affecting experimental bias. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Houston, 1972.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Metadata

Authors
Rosenthal, R., & Rubin, D. B.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
ORCID
Rubin, Donald B.
Venue
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1978-09
Volume
1
Issue
3
Pages
377-386
ISSN
  • 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1825
DOI
10.1017/s0140525x00075506
OpenAlex
W2090464375
Cited by
1,158
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 41 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 37 · 2012: 39
FWCI
54.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 11479 d)
Locations
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
Keywords
self-fulfilling prophecy, experimenter effects, expectancy effects, meta-analysis, effect size estimation, person perception, teacher expectations, therapist expectations, employer expectations, reaction time, inkblot test, animal learning, psychophysical judgment

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review