Demand characteristics of the behaviour avoidance test

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Abstract
The Behaviour Avoidance Test (BAT) is commonly used as an analogue test situation to assess fears. Subjects for studies using a BAT are typically selected by a screening self‐report test of fear and, when given a BAT, are told the purpose of the situation is to measure fear. Frequently, the subject knows the experimenter knows the subject has a high level of fear. Demand characteristics created by these three aspects of such tests were studied. Subjects for a rat fear BAT were recruited by offering 1 or 3 hours course credit for participation, and then given a BAT with a rat as the stimulus object where the stated purpose of the study was measurement of fear or nonverbal communication, and where the subject was told or not told the experimenter knew the subject had a high self‐reported fear. High course credit inflated self‐reports of fear. Where the slated purpose of the BAT was nonverbal communication, fear avoidance scores were significantly reduced. A statement of the experimenter's supposed knowledge of the subject's high self‐reported fear did not affect BAT scores.

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