What phenomenon occurs when research design cues participants about study hypotheses, potentially influencing their responses?

• A. Demand characteristics
• B. Social desirability bias
• C. Response bias
• D. Sampling bias

Answer: (A)

Demand characteristics refer to cues or signals within a research study that can indicate to participants the expected behavior or responses the researcher anticipates. When participants pick up on these cues, they might alter their responses to align with what they believe is desired or hypothesized by the researcher, rather than providing genuine answers. This can seriously compromise the integrity and validity of the research findings as it introduces a variable that is not controlled by the researcher.

In the context of the other options, social desirability bias involves respondents providing answers they believe are more socially acceptable rather than what they truly think or feel. Response bias generally refers to a tendency for participants to respond inaccurately or falsely to certain questions, potentially due to a variety of reasons, while sampling bias happens when the participants selected for the study do not represent the larger population, affecting the generalizability of the results. However, none of these other phenomena specifically relate to the influence of research design cues indicating hypotheses to participants as demand characteristics do.