Rosenhan Effect
Updated 2026-08-08
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Derived from David Rosenhan's study, in which healthy volunteers were admitted to psychiatric hospitals after reporting hearing voices and were then judged to be ill regardless of how normally they behaved. Staff interpreted ordinary activities such as note-taking as symptoms, and none of the pseudopatients were identified as impostors by clinicians. The study demonstrated that once a label is applied, subsequent behavior is interpreted through it. Key qualification: the study has been criticized for methodological problems, though the labeling effect is well supported.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Suspect the label: check whether your interpretation of someone's behavior depends on a prior judgment. - Test for base rate: ask how often the same behavior occurs among people without the label. - Reset the frame: give the person a new context where the old label does not apply.
Anchor fast decisions
A label supplies an interpretive frame that makes ambiguous behavior consistent with the diagnosis, while contradictory evidence is discounted. Because most behavior is ambiguous, nearly anything can be read as confirmation once the frame is in place. The person's actual behavior changes far less than the observers' interpretation of it.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experimentverified
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