EXPERIMENTER EXPECTANCY IN RESISTANCE TO RESPIRATORY AIR-FLOW

The effect of experimenter expectancy was investigated on the resistan ce to respiratory air flow, measured as total respiratory resistance ( R-t) in healthy individuals. Method: Each of three naive experimental assistants collected air flow resistance responses from 30 subjects wh o they had been told were either likely or unlikely to respond to the suggestion of breathing difficulty. Results: The subjects were assigne d to the two conditions at random. The subjects who were described to the experimenters as being likely to respond exhibited greater R-t inc reases to bronchoconstriction suggestion than did the subjects who wer e described as unlikely to respond. Conclusions: These findings confir med the presence of a source of variance that has not been considered previously in suggestion studies.