Hypothesis awareness as a demand characteristic in laboratory-based eating behaviour research: An experimental study.

Hypothesis awareness as a demand characteristic in laboratory-based eating behaviour research: An experimental study. Appetite. 2019 Jun 11;:104318 Authors: Kersbergen I, Whitelock V, Haynes A, Schroor M, Robinson E Abstract Demand characteristics are thought to undermine the validity of psychological research, but the extent to which participant awareness of study hypotheses affects laboratory-measured eating behaviour studies has received limited attention. Participants (N = 84) attended two laboratory sessions in which food intake was measured. In session 1 baseline food intake was measured. In session 2 participants were allocated to either a 'hypothesis aware' or 'hypothesis unaware' condition. Participants were led to believe in the 'hypothesis aware' condition that they were expected to increase their food intake in session 2 relative to session 1. Participants in the 'hypothesis unaware' condition were not provided with hypothesis information. Contrary to our pre-registered predictions, the experimental manipulation of hypothesis awareness did not affect session 2 food intake. However, the manipulation was less effective than anticipated as some participants did not appear to believe the hypothesis information provided. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that participants who believed the study hypothesis was that their food intake would increase in session 2 ate more in session 2 than participants who did not believe...
Source: Appetite - Category: Nutrition Authors: Tags: Appetite Source Type: research