It’s a Trap! Instructional Manipulation Checks Prompt Systematic Thinking on “Tricky†Tasks

David J. Hauser and Norbert Schwarz

SAGE Open, 2015, vol. 5, issue 2, 2158244015584617

Abstract: Instructional manipulation checks (IMCs) have become popular tools for identifying inattentive participants in online studies. IMCs function by attempting to trick inattentive participants into responding incorrectly. However, from a conversational perspective, question characteristics are part of the researcher’s contribution to the conversation, and IMCs may teach participants that there is “more than meets the eye,†prompting systematic thinking on subsequent tricky-seeming questions in an attempt to avoid being tricked. In two online studies, participants responded to a simple task either before or after completing an IMC. As expected, answering an IMC prior to the task improved performance on items that benefit from increased systematic thinking—namely, the Cognitive Reflection Test (Study 1), and a probabilistic reasoning task (Study 2). We conclude that IMCs change attention rather than merely measure attention and discuss implications for their use in online studies.

Keywords: instructional manipulation checks; social cognition; systematic thinking; research methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:5:y:2015:i:2:p:2158244015584617

DOI: 10.1177/2158244015584617

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