MECHANISM BEHIND ACTOR OBSERVER BIAS SERIES

During 1920s and 1930s, Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Works factory in Cicero, Illinois conducted series of experiments. This is a type of bias that occurs in a research wherein the behavior of the subject changes because they are under observation. This bias explains why we, as researchers, blame situation for the outcome of experiments when we would not blame ourselves for conditioning our thoughts in the desired way. Finally, the attribution refers to what the researcher thinks caused the outcome. Furthermore, the observer is the one watching/observing the subject or the outcome of experiment - a researcher. So, the actor here is the person who is performing the behavior - a subject in the research or an outcome of an experiment. This phenomenon occurs wherein the researcher attributes the actions to external factor. Moreover, it could also happen when a researcher influences the subjects/participants of the experiment into believing their assumed hypothesis.

Furthermore, observer-expectancy effect occurs when the research deliberately treats the experiment differently because their assumed hypothesis and want to test it. This effect occurs when the researcher unconsciously treats same experiment differently with different subjects, leading to unequal results within an experiment.

There are different types of research bias which are closely related to observer bias. Furthermore, it can lead to misinterpretation of their behavior and biased treatment from the researchers. Additionally, the presence of bias in your study can cause negative outcomes for people involved in the research study. In fact, this type of bias not only leads to inaccurate data sets, but also can be damaging to scientific research and policy decisions. Moreover, it can affect the data collection and the acquired results can fail to accurately represent what exists in reality because the results were interpreted under researcher’s bias and prejudice. This type of bias can result in misleading information. Furthermore, many research fields use observational studies, such as medicine, psychology, behavioral science, and ethnography. In observational research, one often records behavior or take measurements from the experiment without trying to influence the outcome of the experiment. For example, if a researcher is trying to find out a particular result, and have an incentive to produce data that confirms predication. Research bias is a problem in research studies wherein the information collected is affected by the fact that the researcher has expectations about what is going to happen. To be more precise, it is a type of bias that occurs when the person has personal judgement or perspective that affects their ability to reach or discuss an impartial conclusion. Observer bias is defined as a researcher’s expectation about their research study.

Mechanism behind actor observer bias