Demand to Know Characteristics of Bias

You make your way into the local tavern, where the barkeep serves you up a provocative offer: If you participate in a taste test of the beer on tap, you won’t have to pay anything for the beer.
     You agree, so you’re given two small mugs of beer and asked to announce which one you like better. What you’re not told is that both mugs were filled from the same Samuel Adams tap. The only difference is that one of the mugs has a few drops of balsamic vinegar added.
     When this actual study was done, about 60% of the participants said they preferred the beer which, unbeknownst to them, had the added vinegar. Why? Perhaps because the beer drinker was intrigued by the unusual flavor. Give them a large mug and they wouldn’t like it. In a small mug, the novelty hasn’t yet worn off.
     Now we’ll change the scenario: When you’re invited to participate in the taste test, you’re told the mug to your left contains Sam Adams while the other contains Sam Adams plus a little balsamic vinegar.
     What percentage of participants said they preferred the doctored brew?
     It turned out to be about 35%. Much less than 60%, but still much more than nobody. The explanation for the findings gets more complicated. It has to do with what psychologists call “demand characteristics.”
     Demand characteristics occur when participants in a study or shoppers in a store believe they’ve figured out what the experimenter or the retailer wants them to do and then mold their behavior to fit. Classic research at Northwestern University found that when the consumer believes they’ve been treated nicely, most will want to help the other person prove a point. With the beer experiment, the tasters figured they were being offered the strange-testing beverage because the experimenter wanted to prove it tasted better. And the tasters were getting the beer for free.
     Why the drop in percentage when the people knew one of the mugs had vinegar added? Because some tasters become sourpusses about vinegar in a Sam Adams, even if it’s free beer. Others will still go along with it.
     When you have contradictory outcomes after using a profitability tactic, analyze the demand characteristics in the situation. Are some customers trying to meet your expectations, while others are trying to do the opposite of what they think you expect them to do?

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