An experimental investigation of recruitment bias in eating pathology research.
Previous, uncontrolled research has suggested a bias may exist in recruiting participants for eating disorder research. Recruitment biases may affect sample representativeness and generalizability of findings.


OBJECTIVE
This experiment investigated whether revealing that a study's topic was related to eating disorders created a self-selection bias.


METHODS
Young women at a university responded to advertisements containing contrasting information about the nature of a single study. We recruited one group by advertising the study under the title "Disordered Eating in Young Women" (n = 251) and another group using the title "Consumer Preferences" (n = 259).


RESULTS
Results indicated similar levels of eating pathology in both groups, so the different recruitment techniques did not engender self-selection. However, the consumer preferences group scored higher in self-reported social desirability.


CONCLUSIONS
The level of information conveyed in study advertising does not impact reporting of eating disturbances among nonclinical samples, although there is evidence social desirability might.
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Erin L
EL
Moss
Kristin M
KM
von Ranson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D010361:Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012107:Research Design