Perception of Expectancy Effects

Abstract

The present research reports an assessment of whether people recognize that their performance may be affected by perceived expectations. Four different positive expectation situations and four parallel negative expectation situations were described and subjects were asked to indicate the extent to which they would expect their performance to be affected by each situation. Analysis of variance indicated that people think they will respond more to positive expectations of situations than to negative ones. The specific situation described was also a relevant variable in that expectancies of teachers in a classroom were thought to have less behavioral effect than expectancies of family and friends. The analysis shows an interaction between the situation and the positive versus negative expectations.