Positive test strategy

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Positive test strategy describes the phenomenon of a one-sided search for confirmatory information .

People are information seekers, they search the environment for known and unknown clues. The search for information is usually targeted, i. That is, a hypothesis is constructed, i.e. a guess as to how something could be. Then it looks for clues that support the hypothesis. Objectively, it would make more sense to look for both confirmatory and disproportionate evidence.

Through this one-sided search for information, people will tend to come to a confirmation of their suspicions. Therefore, the positive test strategy is used, among other things, to explain the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy .

However, it should not be rushed to conclude that a positive test strategy inevitably leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The positive test strategy is in fact a diagnostic search strategy, i. That is, if conflicting information is found, it leads to the assumption being dropped. So you come to a 'correct' opinion if contradicting information is found. The reasons for the emergence of a self-fulfilling prophecy are multi-causal, i.e. not only due to the positive test strategy.

Discovery of the phenomenon

The phenomenon was studied from 1978 by the two psychologists Snyder and Swann. In their experiment, the test subjects were given the task of interviewing another person. You should find out if the person is extroverted or introverted .

Half of the subjects were told that the interviewee was an extrovert. The other half of the subjects were said to be introverted. Thus, the subjects had a guess. They could then choose from a list of questions to ask the person a few questions.

It was found that the test subjects selected questions that matched their assumptions. That is, those test subjects who assumed that the person to be interviewed was an extrovert asked "extroverted" questions such as: B: "Do you like going to parties?" Conversely, the supposedly introverted person was asked questions such as: B. "Do you like cozy TV evenings at home?"

On the basis of the experiment it could be shown that people use largely compliant and non-refuting questions when searching for information.

Further studies

More recent research also interprets the results of Peter Wason's two classic experiments , the 2-4-6 task and the selection task , in terms of a positive test strategy.

literature

  • M. Snyder, WB Swann Jr .: Hypothesis-testing processes in social interaction . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1978, Vol. 36, No. 11, 1202-1212. ( PDF; 930 kB )