In one experiment, participants who were told they were in a sensory deprivation experiment (but who really were not) showed the same symptoms as participants who really were kept in sensory deprivation. These results suggest that the experiences reported by the participants were influenced by

A) placebo effects.
B) demand characteristics.
C) illusory correlations.
D) the Pfungst effect.

Question

Mahir Momin · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : B, Explanation :  The participants' reported experiences were influenced by demand characteristics, which are cues that lead participants to guess the experimenter's hypothesis and then adjust their behavior accordingly. In this case, the participants were told they were in a sensory deprivation experiment, so they may have adjusted their behavior and reported experiences to fit with the expected effects of sensory deprivation. This is a form of experimenter bias. Placebo effects (A) refer to improvements in participants' symptoms that are caused by their belief in a treatment, and the Pfungst effect (D) refers to the influence of the experimenter's expectations on the behavior of a participant or animal. Illusory correlations (C) refer to the perception of a relationship between two variables that do not actually have a cause-and-effect relationship.

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