Why might a researcher wish to disguise the objective of a study?

Question

please provide examples

Answer 1

Because he is doing some thing that he is not suppose to do.

Answer 2

I would say that a researcher may disguise the objective of a study to prevent the test subjects from giving false information.

For example, if you were to do a study of racism, many researchers won't flat out tell you that they're looking for signs of racism, because most people would simply say that they are not racist and change their answers to reflect a non-racist attitude. If those conducting the study hide the real reason for the survey, the subjects tend to be less guarded and give you a more honest reaction to your questions.

Answer 3

In psychology there is something called a single and double blind survey. Single blind means the subjects don't know what the research is about and double blind means the subject and the data collector doesn't know what the subject is about, only the person who formulated the test will know. That way you don't end up with demand characteristics, which is when the subject tries to answer questions in a way that they think the researcher wants them to be answered, which ruins a survey. Unless it's for tobacco companies and then it makes the survey just how they like it.

Answer 4

To get more honest response. For instance, if you were doing a study on public opinion supporting a given issue (e.g. abortion) you may want to ask other questions, so that it doesn't appear that is the focus, and don't ask a question that is leading.

A leading question would be: "Do you support murdering fetuses?", or "Do you support government control of a woman's right to choose?".

That is, you don't want the people you are studying to know how you want them to answer. That makes your study more credible to those you are trying to present it to.

Answer 5

so the subjects cannot manipulate it.
for example.
they were really studying whether women dressed differently during ovulation. but they told them the study was about food habits and asked them questions about food when they came (and took pics that were later evaluated to determine if they dressed differently when ovulating)

i was in a study once in college to determine how people used health as an excuse. but they told us they were testing our emotional intelligence. then gave us a really hard test and then asked how our health had been lately (telling us it really affected the test results) to see if we exaggerated health problems as an excuse for poor performance on a test.

if people know what's going on, they can try to manipulate it.
if i was told they were checking to see how people used health as an excuse i might have changed my answers.