There’s an easy way to do research – show people an idea and ask: ‘what do you think of this?’ and then use those answers as a proxy for how people will behave and react to that idea in ‘real life’.
Asking for opinions is a trap. It’s easy, but it’s wrong.
For three reasons
- People will always give you an answer
- Opinion isn’t the same thing as behaviour
- Once the answer has been formed it’s hard to un-think the answer, or ignore that it’s been said.
It’s so tempting to ask for opinions because, from what I know about how our brains work, we’ve been made to operate that way (to give opinions). Humans have a unique capacity for theory of mind, abstract thinking, and a strong sense of self.
People feel capable of answering the question ‘what do you think of this?’ And even when we don’t easily know what we think, we can start to imagine what we might think. Sometimes we imagine what other people might think (because we are wired to ‘think social’).
Once we’ve developed an idea we become attracted by that plausible answer, and so it hardens into a firm opinion – really what we do think. But despite all this less-than-conscious mental processing, that idea does not reflect how we’d really think in a ‘live’ situation.
For researchers, it’s so tempting too to listen to an opinion and take it on board because it sounds plausible. After all, the person we are asking knows themselves better than we do. We might know they are giving us an opinion, and not really describing how they will truly behave, but we are pulled into the magnetic force of the plausible answer. It sounds right, it feels right. It must be right.
To do qualitative research well, so it actually benefits business, we need to train ourselves to avoid temptation. Stay away from opinion and the plausible answer!
We must educate people who commission research too about the pitfalls of ‘plausible’ answers. After all, everyone is attracted to the plausible, not just researchers, and respondents – everyone loves when something ‘feels right’ – we all just love intuition.
Researchers need alternatives to the ‘ask and answered’ proposition – these are mine:
- Cognitive interviewing (seeing how people mentally process communication)
- Decision experiments (to explore how people make choices)
- In-the-moment research (creating the right context for understanding behaviour)
- Ethnography and observation (exploring behaviour in real life)
The more I read about how our minds work, the more I know I need to stay away from asking opinions. It’s the sugar, the sweet stuff. It makes you feel dizzy and good.
We’re wired to want it, but we should stay away from temptation!
