Dr. Fox experiment

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The so-called Dr. Fox experiment is an experimental arrangement from the field of social psychology . The aim of the experiment is to investigate whether and how the speaker influences the reception of (specialist) lectures. The experiment was published in 1973 by Donald H. Naftulin ( University of Southern California School of Medicine), John E. Ware ( Southern Illinois University School of Medicine), and Frank A. Donnelly (USC Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry).

preparation

The hypothesis of the experiment was that a well-presented lecture can give even experienced listeners the feeling of having learned something, even if what is being presented is wrong or contradicting itself.

Michael Fox (1921–1996), an actor with a well-groomed and competent appearance, was hired to carry it out. In two preparatory sessions, one of the authors worked with the actor on a charismatic presentation and discussion technique. The content of the lecture entitled Mathematical Game Theory as Applied to Physician Education ( "The application of mathematical game theory in the training of doctors") was based on an actual published, thematically related technical article, but was targeted with conflicting or ambiguous statements, illogical conclusions and falsified invented technical terms.

execution

The original experiment was carried out on three different groups. Group 1 consisted of eleven psychiatrists, psychologists, and social worker trainers attending a teacher training conference. The actor was known to them as “Dr. Myron L. Fox, ”a supposed expert in the application of mathematics to human behavior. The lecture lasted about an hour, followed by a half-hour discussion. The members of Group 2 were eleven other psychiatrists, psychologists and social worker trainers. They were shown the lecture including the discussion and the introduction on video. Group 3 consisted of 33 teachers and administrators from educational institutions taking part in a graduate course in educational theory . Most of these participants had no specific psychiatric training but had patient experience. This group was also shown the video recording of the lecture and discussion.

After the lecture and discussion, all three groups were given an anonymous questionnaire on the lecture on which they gave various information about their satisfaction with the lecture.

Result

In all three groups, the positive responses clearly outweighed the negative assessments, so that the authors see their hypothesis supported by the study. In detail, the evaluation of the 55 questionnaires resulted in the following picture:

question Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Yes No Yes No Yes No
Did he dwell upon the obvious?
("Was there too much of the obvious?")		 50 50 0 100 28 72
Did he seem interested in his subject?
("Did he seem interested in his subject?")		 100 0 91 9 97 3
Did he use enough examples to clarify his material?
("Were there enough explanatory examples?")		 90 10 64 36 91 9
Did he present his material in a well organized form?
("Was the presentation well structured?")		 90 10 82 18th 70 30th
Did he stimulate your thinking?
("Did the lecture make you think?")		 100 0 91 9 87 13
Did he put his material across in an interesting way?
("Was the material presented in an interesting way?")		 90 10 82 18th 81 19th
Have you read any of this speaker's publications?
("Do you know any publications by the speaker?")		 0 100 9 91 0 100
Specify any other important characteristics of his presentation.
("Name other important features of the lecture.") 		 

The authors conclude from the results that the participants, despite their academic training, did not succeed in recognizing the lecture as nonsense, and that the lecture style evidently exerts a greater influence on a positive assessment than the lecture content. Accordingly, the questioning of learners is not a suitable measure of the assessment of teaching effectiveness, since the satisfaction of learners with a teaching lecture is only an indication of their illusion that they have learned something in this lecture.

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