In the past year, there was either a post or a comment mentioning a specific research experiment. It went something like this:
Two researchers had a disagreement, over whether mental states/energy levels could move from person to another. So they designed an experiment.
There would be an experimental participant in a room, completely separated from the researchers. One of the researchers would lead the participant through tasks — and during the experiment, they would take measurements of both the lead researcher's mental states, and the participants' mental states.
The hypothesis for one researcher, is that the lead researcher's mental states would be observable in the participant. The hypothesis for the second researcher, is that the lead researcher's mental states would have no observable effect on the participant.
Here is where things got fun:
These researchers were both present during the experiments to observe what happened. When the first researcher, who believed there would be an effect, led the participant through the tasks — there was an observed change in the mental state of the participant (affirming the hypothesis). When the second researcher, who did not believe there would be an affect, led the participant through the tasks — there was no observed change in the mental state of the participant (rejecting the hypothesis).
And the interesting conclusion of this was, it seems that perhaps the researchers own mental states/beliefs were correlated with the outcome of the experiment.
Can anybody help recall the name of this experiment or the paper where it was published?
Two researchers had a disagreement, over whether mental states/energy levels could move from person to another. So they designed an experiment.
There would be an experimental participant in a room, completely separated from the researchers. One of the researchers would lead the participant through tasks — and during the experiment, they would take measurements of both the lead researcher's mental states, and the participants' mental states.
The hypothesis for one researcher, is that the lead researcher's mental states would be observable in the participant. The hypothesis for the second researcher, is that the lead researcher's mental states would have no observable effect on the participant.
Here is where things got fun:
These researchers were both present during the experiments to observe what happened. When the first researcher, who believed there would be an effect, led the participant through the tasks — there was an observed change in the mental state of the participant (affirming the hypothesis). When the second researcher, who did not believe there would be an affect, led the participant through the tasks — there was no observed change in the mental state of the participant (rejecting the hypothesis).
And the interesting conclusion of this was, it seems that perhaps the researchers own mental states/beliefs were correlated with the outcome of the experiment.
Can anybody help recall the name of this experiment or the paper where it was published?