- Bogus pipeline
The Bogus Pipeline is a technique used by many social psychologists to reduce response bias or false answers when attempting to collect self-report data. The bogus pipeline is usually used when trying to measure individuals affect or attitudes toward certain stimuli. Basically, the person whose attitude or emotion is being measured is told that they are being monitored by a machine or a
polygraph (lie detector), resulting in more truthful answers. The electrodes and wires that are connected to this individual that represent a reliable means to detect the truth are actually fake and a complete sham. However, participants end up telling their true feelings and attitudes because they truly believe they are being monitored and that the real answers will surface regardless of their response. In short, the bogus pipeline is a fake polygraph used to get participants to truthfully respond to emotional/affective questions (Kassin, Fein, and Markus, 2008). The bogus pipeline can be used to reduce bias because most people do not want to be “second-guessed” by a machine, it is assumed that people would be motivated to choose the “correct” answer as to not show an incongruence inattitude (Jones and Sigall, 1971).References
*Jones, E., Sigall, H. (1971). The Bogus Pipeline: A new paradigm for measuring affect and attitude. Psychological Bulletin, 76 5, 349-364.
*Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H.R. (2008). Social Psychology (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Miffin (ISBN 978-0618-86846-9).
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