The procedure with the social workers was the same. Two stu- dents were placed outside a room in which a social worker spoke with a client. It was clearly stated that a student could not attend the interview between the social worker and the client. When the client came out, one of the students went into the room and asked the social worker to assess the physical appearance of the client using our instrument. Another student approached the client and asked him/her to assess how pleased he or she was with the way the social workers did their job.
Social workers were asked to volunteer for the experiment, as well as the clients. The students introduced themselves to the clients and informed them that they were running this scientific experiment. The students asked them to participate in the experiment and to answer questions from the instrument. Only a few of the social workers’ clients refused to participate in the experiment.