👉 Adapter research is a methodological approach used in the field of social psychology to investigate how individuals' behaviors, attitudes, or perceptions are influenced by the presence of specific objects, settings, or cues that have been previously associated with certain outcomes or experiences. This technique often involves manipulating these environmental elements and observing changes in participants' responses. For example, researchers might place a specific item (the adapter) in different contexts to see if it alters participants' judgments or actions, such as their willingness to help, their attitudes toward a particular group, or their memory recall. By isolating the effect of these environmental cues, adapter research helps to disentangle the impact of situational factors from individual differences, providing insights into how context shapes human behavior and cognition.
