RogerBlack
Senior Member
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https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/way-more-americans-may-be-atheists-than-we-thought/
An interesting approach to people wanting to please the experimenter (or feeling compelled to)
Take ten random statements of no great controversy 'I own a dog'.
For half of the people, swap out one of the uncontroversial questions randomly with 'I believe in god'.
Now, do not ask them to state the result directly, but just how many of the statements apply to them.
The fact that this causes a very different answer than if they are asked explicitly is interesting for any aspect of research which may be biased by wanting to please the experimenter.
An interesting approach to people wanting to please the experimenter (or feeling compelled to)
Take ten random statements of no great controversy 'I own a dog'.
For half of the people, swap out one of the uncontroversial questions randomly with 'I believe in god'.
Now, do not ask them to state the result directly, but just how many of the statements apply to them.
The fact that this causes a very different answer than if they are asked explicitly is interesting for any aspect of research which may be biased by wanting to please the experimenter.