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Book chapter
Experimenter Effects
Advanced Research Methods for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp.115-128
Cambridge University Press
03/14/2019
Abstract
Experimenter effects, or the impact that an experimenter can independently have on a study’s outcome, is an important consideration in social and behavioral research. These effects can occur in two ways. Noninteractional experimenter effects involve study biases that do not directly impact participants’ actual behaviors. Examples include biases in the decisions an experimenter makes, such as choice of study stimuli, types of observations made, and data analysis strategies. Interactional experimenter biases arise through the interactions between the experimenter and the participant. Examples include the experimenter’s biosocial and psychosocial attributes which may affect a participant’s behavior independent of the study variables. Experimenter expectations can also bias a study’s outcome in favor of its hypotheses. The potential for experimenter effects emphasizes the importance of good study design, including the use of properly trained experimenters blind to the study’s hypotheses and transparency in one’s study decisions.
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Details
- Title
- Experimenter Effects
- Publication Details
- Advanced Research Methods for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp.115-128
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Copyright
- © Cambridge University Press
- Identifiers
- 99380499597106600
- Academic Unit
- Psychology; Usha Kundu, MD College of Health
- Language
- English