What does DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS stand for? 

Demand characteristics

In research—particularly psychology—demand characteristics refers to an experimental artifact where participants form an interpretation of the experiment's purpose and unconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation. Pioneering research was conducted on demand characteristics by Martin Orne. Typically, they are considered an extraneous variable, exerting an effect on behavior other than that intended by the experimenter. A possible reason for demand characteristics is the participant's expectation that he or she will somehow be evaluated and thus figures out a way to 'beat' the experiment to attain good scores in the alleged evaluation. Demand Characteristics cannot be eliminated from experiments, but demand characteristics can be studied to see their effect on the experiment. Examples of some common demand characteristics: ⁕Rumors of the study - participants talking about what they did or what they thought the hypothesis was ⁕Setting of the laboratory - depending on where the experiment is being performed can affect people's perceptions ⁕Explicit or Implicit communication - any communication between the participant and experimenter whether it be verbal or non-verbal that may influence their perception of the experiment.

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