Experimenter Bias
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This page is part of the EvoWiki encyclopedia of fallacies. |
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Explanation
When your measurement leaves leeway for you, you commit this fallacy if you allow your prejudices to taint the results. This issue arises often in social and biological sciences, but only very rarely has it been noted in the history of the physical sciences.
Avoiding This Fallacy
Experimenter bias stems from the deep-seated beliefs of an experimenter and is therefore difficult to prevent. Modern psychology generally supports the belief that is not possible to prevent experimenters from being biased, so it is necessary to design experiments in ways that bias cannot influence the results.
Double-blind experiments are advisable whenever possible. In cases where measurements are recorded by human observers rather than by mechanical instruments, it is advisable to train people as observers who have little or no stake in the outcome of the experiment until their recorded observations correlate well on trials.
Minimizing interaction between the theorist(s) and experimental subjects to the barest minimum will limit the effects of bias, although this is not possible for all types of investigation.
Category
External Links
- Bruce Thompson [1]
