Glossary // Glossary term Technical
Demand characteristics
Cues in an experimental situation that convey to participants what the study is about or what response is expected, and that can shape their behaviour independently of the manipulation. Orne described the experiment as a social situation in which participants actively try to be good subjects. Studies of emotion regulation are particularly exposed, because instructions such as 'try to feel less upset' make the expected answer obvious; post-experimental inquiry, cover stories and measures less open to self-presentation are used to reduce the problem. How one could reason about recording a catharsis-like change of state: signals, features, inference and context, baselines, self-report, error costs and ethics, and why every step stays uncertain. Nothing on this site measures anyone. Affective computing promises to infer emotion as if it were a system metric. The evidence on facial movements and autonomic signals, together with questions of consent, explains why every metric in this artifact is an artistic value. The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at. (1962). On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. doi:10.1037/h0043424 Supports the definition of demand characteristics and the recommendation of post-experimental inquiry. A historical, conceptual source; the size of demand effects varies across paradigms.Where the site uses it
Studies behind it