1976/08/01 by Ralph L. Rosnow, Robert Rosenthal
Social Sciences · #Psychology of Social Influence #Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · doi:10.1080/00049537608255268
The extent to which a useful, comprehensive science of human behaviour can be based upon the behaviour of volunteer subjects is an empirical question of broad importance. In this paper we discuss what is known about (a) the role expectations and behaviour of volunteers and nonvolunteers, (b) differentiating characteristics of volunteers vs. nonvolunteers that may jeopardize the robustness of research conclusions derived from volunteer samples, (c) how a subject's volunteer status can interact with the stimulus variables in an experiment, and (d) some useful procedures for circumventing or reducing these biasing effects.