The Influence of Meta-Experimental Factors on Compliance and Attitudes: Participant Motivation and Experimenter Demeanor

An experimental study examined the effects of participant motivation (required vs. voluntary participation) and experimenter demeanor (participants treated as co-researchers or as dataproducers) on compliance and participant attitude. Participants completed a meaningless task and then filled out a questionnaire about their attitudes toward the experimenter and task. Compliance was measured by how long and how accurately participants worked on the task. Results indicate that Participant Motivation type affects attitudes toward the experimenter and task and Experimenter Demeanor affects compliance on a task. Voluntary Co-Researcher participants had more positive attitudes and marked on the most number of pages but did not complete the task correctly compared to other participants. Future research could increase the impossibility of the task to see how much participants will comply, and should look at the effect on compliance that a greater difference in position between experimenters and participants may have.