Participant Bias

Participant bias occurs when individuals involved in an experiment act or respond in ways they believe correspond with what the researchers are looking for. The participant is not behaving how they normally would but are responding the way they think they are supposed to. This can be detrimental because it may seem as if an independent variable was influential when it was really the participant acting as if it was. Participant bias can be avoided by using blind studies and reducing demand characteristics.


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