在有關生物醫(yī)學和社會科學研究中，常常讓人們報告他們的想法、感受和行為。當這些研究內容被重復報告后，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)重復測量的結果呈現(xiàn)下降趨勢，并稱這種模式為“衰減效應”，即在后面的報告出現(xiàn)偏差。但也有另一種可能就是初始評估時的“提升偏差”。這種“提升偏差”在報告內部狀態(tài)時比外顯行為更明顯，在報告消極心理狀態(tài)和身體癥狀時比報告積極心理狀態(tài)時更明顯。因此在采用主觀報告的所有研究中要注意這種初始階段“提升偏差”。
People’s reports of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are used in many fields of biomedical and social science. When these states have been studied over time, researchers have often observed an unpredicted and puzzling decrease with repeated assessment. When noted, this pattern has been called an “attenuation effect,” suggesting that the effect is due to bias in later reports. However, the pattern could also be consistent with an initial elevation bias. We present systematic, experimental investigations of this effect in four field studies (study 1:?n?= 870; study 2:?n?= 246; study 3:?n?= 870; study 4:?n?= 141). Findings show clear support for an initial elevation bias rather than a later decline. This bias is larger for reports of internal states than for behaviors and for negative mental states and physical symptoms than for positive states. We encourage increased awareness and investigation of this initial elevation bias in all research using subjective reports.
