Observer-expectancy effect

"Participant-observer effect" redirects here.

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The observer-expectancy effect (also called the experimenter-expectancy effect, observer effect, or experimenter effect) is a form of reactivity, in which a researcher's cognitive bias causes them to unconsciously influence the participants of an experiment. It is a significant threat to a study's internal validity, and is therefore typically controlled using a double-blind experimental design.

An example of the observer-expectancy effect is demonstrated in music backmasking, in which hidden verbal messages are said to be audible when a recording is played backwards. Some people expect to hear hidden messages when reversing songs, and therefore hear the messages, but to others it sounds like nothing more than random sounds. Often when a song is played backwards, a listener will fail to notice the "hidden" lyrics until they are explicitly pointed out, after which they are obvious. Other prominent examples include facilitated communication and dowsing.

See also

Sociology portal Psychology portal

• Demand characteristics
• Clever Hans – a horse who seemed to be performing arithmetic and other amazing skills, but in reality took cues transmitted unconsciously by his trainer and observers.
• epistemic feedback
• Expectation
• Hawthorne effect
• Placebo – an inert medicine or preparation which works because the patient thinks it will
• Nocebo
• N-rays – imaginary radiation
• Pygmalion effect – teachers who expect higher achievement from some children actually get it
• Reality tunnel
• Reflexivity (social theory)
• Reference thinking
• Subject-expectancy effect
• Naturalistic observation
• Participant observer

External links

• Skeptic's Dictionary on the Experimenter Effect
• An article that speaks of Expectancy effects in paranormal investigation
• Another article by Rupert Sheldrake
• Songs of Praise (With subtitles) An example of observer-expectancy effect involving subtitles which alter the observer's interpretation of audio.

This cognitive psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Cognitive biases Cognitive psychology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Centropomus William Dalrymple (historian) Look at other dictionaries: Expectancy effect — may refer to: *Observer expectancy effect *Subject expectancy effect …   Wikipedia Subject-expectancy effect — The Subject expectancy effect, is a form of reactivity that occurs in scientific experiment or medical treatment when a research subject or patient expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected… …   Wikipedia Observer effect — may refer to: Observer effect (information technology), the impact of observing a process while it is running Observer effect (physics), the impact of observing a physical system Observer expectancy effect of psychology, how people change their… …   Wikipedia Hawthorne effect — The Hawthorne effect is a form of reactivity whereby subjects improve or modify an aspect of their behavior being experimentally measured simply in response to the fact that they know they are being studied,[1][2] not in response to any… …   Wikipedia Pygmalion effect — The Pygmalion effect, Rosenthal effect, or more commonly known as the teacher expectancy effect refers to situations in which students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so. The Pygmalion effect requires a… …   Wikipedia Nocebo — WikiWorld comic about The Nocebo Effect, based on the articles Placebo and Nocebo In medicine, a nocebo reaction or response refers to harmful, unpleasant, or undesirable effects a subject manifests after receiving an inert dummy drug or placebo …   Wikipedia List of cognitive biases — A cognitive bias is a pattern of poor judgment, often triggered by a particular situation. Identifying poor judgment, or more precisely, a deviation in judgment, requires a standard for comparison, i.e. good judgment . In scientific… …   Wikipedia List of effects — This is a list of names for observable phenonema that contain the word effect, amplified by reference(s) to their respective fields of study. #*3D audio effect (audio effects)A*Accelerator effect (economics) *Accordion effect (physics) (waves)… …   Wikipedia Confirmation bias — (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.[Note 1][1] As a result, people gather evidence and recall …   Wikipedia Peace Journalism — Peace Media , Conflict Resolving Media , Conflict Sensitive Journalism , Conflict Solution Journalism , Reporting the World , Constructive Conflict Coverage, and Peacebuilding Media redirect here. A comparison of peace journalism and war… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”