All eyes on you: how researcher presence changes the way you walk

Most human movement research takes place within controlled laboratories where researchers observe participant movement. Because a majority of daily activity is performed without observation, we hypothesized movement within a laboratory would vary when there was a small, large or absence of research group. We also hypothesized that personality type would influence movement during observation. Participants completed a personality questionnaire, then walked in a laboratory during three different conditions: no research group (no researchers), small research group (2 researchers), and large research group (6–10 researchers). Results revealed spatiotemporal parameters were altered between conditions, however personality type did not influence changes in movement. As the number of researchers increased, gait speed, cadence, and stride length increased, and step duration decreased. Gait speed increased by .03 m/s from the no research group to the small research group, by .06 m/s from the no research group to the large research group, and by .03 m/s from the small to large research group (all p values < .001). Understanding how researcher observation modifies movement is important and affects the replicability of results, as well as the interpretation of laboratory-based movement studies to activities of daily living in real world settings.