Frightened by an Old Scarecrow: The Remarkable Resilience of Demand Characteristics

Abstract

More than 50 years ago, the idea of demand characteristics was introduced by Martin Orne in a widely cited American Psychologist article. Through the 1960s and the mid-1970s, numerous studies were conducted investigating the role of demand characteristics in a variety of research areas. Demand characteristics faded from researchers’ attention in the late 1970s, relegated to brief descriptions in research methods textbooks. The present article traces the origins of and battles fought over demand characteristics during its heyday. Evidence is provided that suggests demand characteristics experienced a rebirth in the 1980s and it remains a widely referenced idea up to today. Demand characteristics reflect perennial concerns about the difficulties of and limitations to doing research with humans, concerns that often surface in the periodic crises that confront psychology. The types of problems that animated the crisis of confidence associated with demand characteristics in the 1970s form one dimension of the current replication crisis. Reinterpretation of this current replication crisis and a new direction for experimental research with human subjects are derived from this review of demand characteristics.