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Running Head: PHYSICAL CONTACT

The Effects of Physical Contact

on Drink Preference
Riki Shafier
Moreshet
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Abstract
Past research has demonstrated that demand characteristics play a large role in influencing
experimental outcomes. Experiments on the ‘good subject affect’ and slope perception were
both performed to assess the role of demand characteristics on subjects. This study tested the
effects of physical contact on drink preference in 10 female college students. The subjects were
given two identical drinks, and after seeing receiving from the experimenter either no touch at
all or a gentle caress on the shoulder, were asked to rate the drinks on a scale of one to ten.
The results supported the hypothesis that physical contact would influence subject ratings,
according to the t-test conducted. Demand characteristics were shown to have an effect on
drink preference.
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Demand Characteristics: the Effects

of Facial Expressions on Drink Preference

We will operationally define demand characteristics as: either the subject’s knowledge of the
experimenter’s hypothesis, or understanding the benefits that will result from the subject
behaving in a certain manner.

A clear example of this was illustrated by Orne (1962) who proposed the ‘good subject effect.’
This means that participants in a scientific study will often give a certain response, even one
they may have originally chosen not to provide, if they realize that this specific response is the
one that the researcher is looking for, and that this response will further scientific research.
This concept of the ‘good subject effect’ demonstrates how participants in an experiment will
often comply with the hypothesis of the researcher, simply to please the researcher.

A separate study was conducted by Orne (1962) together with Navarick (2004) to highlight the
effects of demand characteristics on the responses participants provide in studies. Two buttons
were placed on either side of each participant, alongside a TV. The subject was given free reign
as to which button he would choose to press. If he would press the left button, the TV would
respond with a short pause, and would then play a long cartoon. If the subject pressed the right
button, the TV would respond with a long pause and a short cartoon. In this experiment, the
researcher tested the subjects' button choice after the researcher's intervention.

There were three groups in this experiment. For the first group, the researcher told the
participants that they may choose whichever button they prefer, while expressing his
preference that they press the button on the right.

For the second group, the researcher told the participants that they may choose whichever
button they prefer, but if they press the button on the right, they will contribute to the
advancement of scientific research.
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For the third group, the experimenter expressed a direct command that the participants press
the button on the right.

The conclusion was as follows: at first, participants would go along with the preference of the
researcher, until they would experience a negative consequence- the long pause and short
cartoon. From this, the researcher concluded that reinforcement overrides demand
characteristics.

Another study was done a few years later by Durgin, Baird, Greenberg, Russel
Shaughnessy and Waymouth, 2009,to illustrate the effects of demand characteristics on
participants performance in a study.

This group of researchers chose to work with the hypothesis that that wearing a heavy
backpack causes distances to seem longer and slopes to seem steeper. An experiment was held
to see if demand characteristics- in this case, the knowledge of this hypothesis- would affect
the estimation of the slope, from each participant.

Similar to the last study, this one had three groups as well. The first group, which served as a
control group, did not wear a backpack, and were instructed to give their estimate of the slope.

The second group did wear backpacks, and knowing the research behind this experiment, were
told to give their estimation of the slope.

The third group wore backpacks as well, however, they were not told the true purpose of the
experiment. They were informed that they purpose of wearing the backpack was to carry
medical equipment, which would monitor their ankle muscles.

The results of this study were as follows: groups one and three shared the same estimations of
the slope. Group two, who knew the hypothesis, had the highest estimation of the slope’s
distance. To ensure that group three, the group that was deceived, truly was deceived, the
researchers had the participants of group three fill out a questionnaire that determined
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whether the participants knew the experimenter’s true objective. The results of this
questionnaire demonstrated that the participants had indeed, been deceived.

The researchers concluded that the demand characteristics, the knowledge of the hypothesis of
the experiment, affect the responses of the participants.

Because of the conflicting results of these two studies, a third study was conducted to shed
some light on the matter of the effects of demand characteristics within an experiment. Shafier
(2012) conducted an experiment on 18-24 year old Orthodox women to see whether
participant’s responses as to their preference of similar tasting drinks would be affected by
physical contact of the researcher- the operationally defined demand characteristics. The
hypothesis of the study was that the presence of physical contact would affect the preference
of the subject’s similar tasting drinks.

Method
Participants and Setting
Ten female subjects, aged 18 to 24 (mean age 19.5), living on the Neve Campus, were asked to
take part in an experiment via a convenience sample. They were all Orthodox women, who
were spending the year studying in Israel. They were approached by the experimenter and
asked if they would be able to give up five minutes of their time to participate in a study
involving tasting two different drinks. They were told that they would not be receiving any
compensation for participating in the experiment. They all agreed willingly to participate and
agreed not to discuss the experiment with each other until further notified.
The study was conducted in the second room of a first floor hallway of the dorm building, on
the Neve Campus.
Procedures
Using a within subjects design, 10 female subjects were gathered. They were each told
individually that would be getting two different drinks in turn and after each drink, would be
asked to rate that drink on a scale of one to five. In order to counterbalance, the drinks were
given in different orders. Half of the subjects were given drink A, Sprite®, first -and half of the
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subjects were given drink B, Sierra Mist® first. The independent variable that was manipulated
was the physical contact, or lack thereof, of the experimenter. The dependent variable that was
measured was the rating given to each drink. As each subject was handed their first drink in
their right arm, the experimenter leaned in and gently caressed them on their left arm. They
were then asked to take a drink and rate the drink on a scale of one to ten, one being lowest,
ten being the highest, with a mid-point of 5. The experimenter then recorded their rating. Next,
Each subject was then given a second, similar tasting drink. As the subjects were given their
second drink, the experimenter did not make any physical contact. After they drank, the
subjects were asked to rate their second drink on a scale of one to ten. Again, the experimenter
recorded their rating.

Results
A t-test was conducted to observe the differences between the obtained scores of the demand
characteristics group (the group that received physical contact) and the group with no physical
contact. A t-observed of 2.68 was calculated. At the alpha level of p = .05, the t-observed was
greater than the critical t values. The differences between the rating scores in treatment
condition A and treatment condition B were
significant.
Discussion
The results of the study showed that the scores reported by participants in condition A, the
demand characteristics group, were significantly higher than condition B, the no-contact group,
according to the t-test conducted. Since scores were higher for the group that was exposed to
physical contact, the results indicate that physical contact had an effect on the reported taste
preferences of the subjects. It seems that this study demonstrates how demand characteristics
of the experimenter influence people’s taste preferences.
Physical contact has an impact on emotions and behaviors and can convey researcher’s
expectations and therefore alter behavior of subjects in together with the independent
variable. This is important to know, because it can affect the validity of an experiment. When
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conducting an experiment, the experimenter must make sure that he does not use any physical
contact to cause the subjects to respond in a specific way. Taste preferences perhaps can also
be influenced by things such as the way researchers carry themselves and the choice of words
that researchers use.
One strength of the above experiment was that it was a controlled experimental study, insuring
strong internal validity. The subjects were each given the same drink, in the same place, and by
the same researcher. The same researcher conducted all parts of the experiment.
Another strength of the study would be that the independent variables were balanced equally
among subjects and presented in different orders- to control for order effects.

One weakness of the experiment would be that the study’s external validity was limited
because the experiment was conducted with a convenience sample, of all female Orthodox
Jewish students, between the ages of eighteen to twenty four. Also, the sample size of the
above experiment was a very small sample of 10 people. Therefore, it is possible that the
results in other samples or populations would not be the same, and the results that were
significant in the above study could not be generalized to other populations.
Future studies on the topic of physical contact as a demand characteristic should investigate
the effects of physical contact as demand characteristics on male subjects, as well as, on
different ages, and in different populations.
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References
F. Durgin, J.A. Baird, M. Greenburg, R. Russell, D. Shaughnessy, S. Waymouth, “Who is being
deceived? The experimental demand of wearing a backpack,” Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, pp 1-4, 2009.

S.D. Young, B.D. Adelstien and S.R. Ellis, “Demand Characteristics in Assessing Motion Sickness
in a Virtual Environment: Or Does Taking a Motion Sickness Questionnaire Make you
Sick?” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 422-
428, May/June 2007.