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Experimenter expectancy bias does not explain Eurasian jays' (Garrulus glandarius) performance in a desire-state attribution task.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Ostojić, Ljerka 
Legg, Edward W 
Dits, Arne 
Williams, Natalie 
Brecht, Katharina F 

Abstract

Male Eurasian jays have been found to adjust the type of food they share with their female partner after seeing her eat 1 type of food to satiety. One interpretation of this behavior is that the male encoded the female's decreased desire for the food she was sated on, and adjusted his behavior accordingly. However, in these studies, the male's actions were scored by experimenters who knew on which food the female was sated. Thus, it is possible that the experimenters' expectations (subconsciously) affected their behavior during tests that, in turn, inadvertently could have influenced the males' actions. Here, we repeated the original test with an experimenter who was blind to the food on which the female was sated. This procedure yielded the same results as the original studies: The male shared food with the female that was in line with her current desire. Thus, our results rule out the possibility that the Eurasian jay males' actions in the food sharing task could be explained by the effects of an experimenter expectancy bias. (PsycINFO Database Record

Description

Keywords

Animals, Bias, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food, Male, Motivation, Passeriformes, Social Behavior, Social Perception

Journal Title

J Comp Psychol

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0735-7036
1939-2087

Volume Title

130

Publisher

American Psychological Association (APA)
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/I000690/1)
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/M008460/1)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, European Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, ERASMUS scholarship, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge Commonwealth and European Trust.