Research Tips

Demand Artefacts

Researchers try to get a true representation of respondents’ attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, etc., but this isn’t always easy. Respondents may answer in a way that reflects positively on themselves, or they may guess at what result the researcher is looking for and answer in a way that is consistent with that. This latter form of bias is called a “demand artefact”. For example, if a researcher is investigating attitudes toward a particular company, the answers a respondent provides may be more positive than his or her true attitudes if he or she believes the researcher is looking for favourable comments. There are steps that can be taken to decrease the chances of demand artefacts (e.g., making it difficult to determine what, if any, answer is expected) and to mitigate their influence if they do occur (e.g., identifying those who have guessed the hypothesis and eliminating those observations from the analysis).