Procedures and Manipulation of Independent variables
Explaining the experimental procedures to our participants without invoking a demand effect (i.e., inducing specific types of behavior through the wording of the instructions or the presentation of the experimental materials) posed a challenge in designing our experiment. Specifically, to be able to test our hypotheses, we needed an experimental setup in which all participants were aware that overstating their performance was possible, but misreporting would not be considered completely appropriate within “the rules of the game.”