Five processes of response distortion: a model of response filters
The Authors
Norbert Scholl, Candor Consult, Wagenstraat, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose – Honesty and spontaneity are regularly discussed in articles on qualitative market research. The focus is mostly on specific types of response tendencies, and the tendencies are mostly emotional in nature (e.g. self presentation). The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive framework that describes and explains the different types of response processes, based both on an emotional-cognitive dimension and an internal-external dimension. These tendencies are coined as “response filters”.
Design/methodology/approach – This model of response filters is drawn up as a hypothetical model, inspired by the theory of Daniel Katz on the four functions of attitudes: instrumental, ego-defensive, value expression and knowledge organisation. It is likely that these functions not only determine why we have certain attitudes, but also how we present them to others. The author, a social psychologist with 20 years of experience as a qualitative market researcher, proposes a framework of response tendencies in qualitative research, using the theory of attitude functions as a basis.
Findings – Using the analytical framework of Katz, the author first describes five main processes that play a role in the answering process. A model of response filters is consequently developed, based on the emotional-cognitive dimension and the internal-external orientation dimension, and finally the author describes strategies and techniques for interviewers, to deal with the described response tendencies.
Research limitations/implications – Although the model seems to be comprehensive and will probably match the experiences of most qualitative market research practitioners, it is speculative in nature. Its main purpose is to offer an insightful framework, that helps students and practitioners to get a better understanding of the dynamics of interviewing; the factors that are involved and how to deal with them to reach a deeper understanding of people's attitudes.
Originality/value – In the area of quantitative studies, a large amount of research and documentation is available on so-called response tendencies in closed questions and ranking tasks. In qualitative market research, however, one has not yet come across a comparable overview of the various psychological mechanisms that are relevant to open questions.
Article Type:
Research paper
Keyword(s):
Interviews; Memory; Rationalization; Language.
Journal:
Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal
Volume:
12
Number:
1
Year:
2009
pp:
7-14
Copyright ©
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN:
1352-2752
Introduction
The value of a market research survey stands and falls with the willingness of respondents to give clear and honest answers. Quite often, however, we cannot be sure that respondents are really honest about themselves or indeed that they have any understanding of their own feelings and thoughts when they answer questions. This article is about the processes that occur in the minds of respondents between a question being asked and an answer being given. What kind of mechanisms affect the spontaneity and honesty of respondents in interview situations? What are the contributing factors that cause people to censor themselves as they give their answers?
In the area of quantitative studies, a large amount of research and documentation is available on so-called response tendencies in closed questions and requests for rankings. In a qualitative survey, however, I am not aware of an overview of the various psychological mechanisms that are relevant to open questions. This article is therefore an attempt to provide a systematic approach to the interaction between these “response filters” from the viewpoint of market research.
Forgetting
Qualitative researchers in interviews and group discussions sometimes ask the same question several times, using different words. The purpose is not primarily to test the respondents' consistency or honesty, but to obtain more profound insights, as people dig deeper into their memories. Forgetting can be seen as a form of “natural corrosion of knowledge”. After all, it takes time to retrieve and polish up recollections from your memory. People sometimes need quite a lot of time to remember details of experiences which might form the basis of their views, even in cases where those experiences were extremely positive or negative.
Suppression
Suppression is not a matter of wear and tear, but of revising our memories. About a century ago a paradigmatic shift was caused by Freud's theory that the subconscious mind plays tricks on us. Yet this theory has apparently remained empirically unverified to the present day, and there is now very little support to substantiate it. Nevertheless, we may wish to see suppression as something that is done not by our subconscious, but by our conscious mind, i.e. the attempt to suppress attitudes that seem less acceptable. This makes it a very useful concept and something that every researcher will have experienced in practice and which should therefore be seriously taken into account in market research.
Verbalisation
Interviewing is a way of “tapping” the respondent's reservoir of attitudes and views. However, these attitudes are not simply waiting to be collected, but they are partly built up the moment a person is asked to disclose them. The retrieval of such data therefore demands an act of verbalisation on the part of the respondent who is asked to put their attitude into words.
To conduct this distillation process, we need the respondent, who is going to apply a range of filters in their effort to verbalise. Two important filters are the selection of the relevant aspects (retrieval) and the wording of the reply (expression). To some extent, the verbalisation of an attitude will be determined by the notions and concepts that are at the respondent's disposal at the time of the question. Accidental external circumstances (interview environment, mood, the paper or book they have been reading) can therefore affect the retrieval and formulation processes and thus also the attitude expressed in the interview. The effect of external circumstances also depends on the strength of the attitude itself (important/unimportant, rarely/frequently touched upon), the time that is available to answer the question and the extent to which a respondent is able to put their thoughts into words.
In a personal interview there are of course also selection and formulation filters on the part of the interviewer. Whatever is encoded by the respondent needs to be decoded by the interviewer. Expertise in the decoding of answers and an ability to analyse the same in the presence of such filters are therefore indispensable for the delivery of a good survey.
Justification
Respondents feel under a certain amount of pressure to ensure that their responses sound responsible and reasonable. “Why” questions tend to elicit reasoned statements in which the respondent tries to establish clear, logical links between their attitudes and preferably also between their attitudes and their behaviour (cognitive consistency). This is why car buyers tend to put a lot of emphasis on functional aspects (space, capacity, etc.) when asked about their buying motivation. Although personal identification with a brand name is equally important in the buying process, such motivation is much more difficult to justify than rational considerations.
Pleasing
In all our relationships and thus also in an interview situation, we have a desire to come across not only as reasonable and intelligent, but also as good-natured and pleasant. However, social pressure does not, by definition, automatically lead to friendly or positive replies. It may also mean that a respondent who does not really feel like entering into a given conversation will give superficial answers for the sake of peace, just to avoid presenting themselves in a negative light.
Figure 1 maps our five processes of distortion on a two-dimensional chart. The horizontal axis specifies the extent to which distortion is mainly oriented towards oneself (ego-defensive) or has a social function (expression of values); the vertical axis expresses the extent to which this distortion is either cognitive (instrumental, knowledge-based) or emotional (expression of values).
Strategies for dealing with filters
I believe there are three strategies with which interviewers can influence a respondent's tendency to use filters.
Accomodate
The most basic level concerns internal and cognitive aspects. What happens is not so much due to the respondent's unwillingness to share about their motivation, but rather their inability to do so. The process of retrieving information about attitudes and their underlying motivations, takes time. At this level it is therefore important to create an environment where the respondent will feel encouraged to be open and honest and where they have enough time to answer carefully.
The obstacle that is easiest to overcome is forgetting. The key to its demolition is time. We can compare an interview with a chat among friends: everyone contributes their recollections, and at the end of the evening they have a clear picture again of something that happened in the distant past. The way to add value to a qualitative survey is to take an issue which hardly ever receives attention in daily life and then to put it under a magnifying glass in a qualitative setting. As a result, respondents have more time to unlock their own memories on a whole range of aspects which they might never have considered relevant.
Time is also required in order to create a relationship of trust between interviewer and interviewee. It is the job of the interviewer to accommodate for an open, safe atmosphere where people can make themselves vulnerable and where they can share more about themselves than they would normally do in social situations. But there are various other tools an interviewer can use to “assist”: a respondent will feel safe in a relaxed and natural environment, where the interviewer is dressed appropriately (i.e. they must not be overdressed); it is good to mirror forms of behaviour whereby the respondent feels accepted and to use language that they can easily understand.
Facilitate
We can see at this level that respondents are vaguely aware of their attitudes and motivation. However, this vague awareness cannot be expressed yet, because they do not (yet) have the words or imagery to express their feelings. Qualitative research provides a scale of facilitation techniques to enable a person to put their feelings into words.
To stimulate some good verbalisation of feelings or ideas in the form of an attitude, the interviewer needs to start with open questions. Experienced interviewers deliberately create moments of “pregnant silence” which will potentially give birth to new ideas. Examples of techniques on the cognitive level are exercises where respondents are asked to group together certain items or to arrange them along a simple scale.
Most techniques – typically of a qualitative kind – are situated on the emotional side of the model. Using projective techniques, a respondent can safely project socially undesirable qualities of their own ego onto others. Creative techniques also help counteract a respondent's tendency to show themselves as someone reasonable and responsible. Instead of going along a purely logical route, the interviewer approaches an issue through associations.
Intervene
In an interview, consumers differ from managers and politicians in that they do not feel the need to defend specific interests in their answers. In B-to-B and political interviews, on the other hand, respondents always have a ready flow of words and are armed to the teeth with arguments that will put a positive spin on a certain viewpoint or decision. For the interviewer who is looking for the story behind the story, open questions and moments of pregnant silence are ineffective, and the respondent is well aware that the longer they take on their answers, the less time remains for difficult questions. In such a situation, it is more appropriate to ask targeted and closed questions. By being provocative and by confronting the respondents with discrepancies between various attitudes and their behaviour, the interviewer can encourage them to adopt a more critical and honest attitude.
Respondents with difficulties in finding the right words are a different category altogether. In such cases it is often good to verify an answer to make sure the respondent has been properly interpreted (“If I understand you correctly, you're saying … ”).
In Figure 2 we have taken the various techniques for dealing with response filters and distributed them across the same axes as in Figure 2. Note, however, that this is merely a rough sketch.
Stage three in the practical application of this model involves a look at different types of surveys which we can place within our model of response filters. Again, the distribution across the axes is merely tentative and is above all intended to stimulate the formation of ideas on this issue (Figure 3).
This model indicates for instance, that for concept development, the emphasis should be on taking time, creating the right atmosphere for respondents to open up their minds, creating awareness for latent market opportunities. Researchers have to accommodate for the right atmosphere where free associations can “blossom”. In concept testing, time and atmosphere are much less of an issue. On the contrary, the first reactions are often a better indication of true feelings, and secondary reactions are often used to rationalize evaluations.
Conclusions
Qualitative surveys differ with regard to the subject, scope, methodology and techniques. The use of techniques very much depends on the extent to which the subject of the survey is cognitively or emotionally slanted and on the extent to which respondents are prepared to express their own attitudes or feel the need to defend a formal viewpoint. The model presented here may well make a contribution to a better understanding of the distortions that occur in the time span between questions and answers and thus also partly to an understanding of the discrepancy between attitudes that are expressed and the respondents' actual behaviour. Fortunately, qualitative interviewers have a whole range of techniques at their disposal whereby they can reduce this discrepancy to proportions that are acceptable to researchers and clients for practical purposes.
Figure 1Response filters on two axes: “emotional charge” and “self-presentation”
Figure 2Strategies for dealing with response filters
Figure 3Survey types in relation to response filters and strategies
Further Reading
Bennett, P.D., Kassarjian, H.H. (1972), Consumer Behavior, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, .
de Ruyter, K., Scholl, N. (1998), "Positioning qualitative market research: reflections from theory and practice", Qualitative Market Research, Vol. 1 No.1, pp.7-14.
de Ruyter, K., Scholl, N. (2004), Qualitative Market Research, Theory and Practice, Boom, Amsterdam, CA, .
Appendix. Explanation of terms
The techniques mentioned in the figures refer to common practices in qualitative market research. The facilitating techniques are used to help respondents to verbalize or express their ideas and opinions about brands, products and services. Some of the less obvious ones are explained here:
Figure 2: Strategies for dealing with response filters
Nomemclature
Mirroring=Copying the respondents posture to enhance recognition.
Role playing=Respondents can enact the role of a service, product or even a brand to project covert attitudes in the play.
Balloon test=Adding a balloon in which respondents write what a product, service or brand would be saying if it were alive.
Collage Tecqnique=Respondents select pictures and texts from magazines and paste them on a board to visualize their images of brands.
Planet technique=What would say the “planet I-phone” look like? Respondents project their associations in terms of people, clothes, lifestyle…
Photo sorting=Brands are characterised by a set of photographs that have been tested for their dominant associations.
Pregnant silence=Giving enough room to respondents to express themselves in their own words often yield surprising insights.
Natural grouping=Putting 3-50 products on the table and having them grouped into logical (as perceived by respondents) clusters.
Natural scaling=After probing of what are relevant dimensions to divide a market (with natural grouping), products are “measured” on these dimensions by evaluating them on virtual scales.
Figure 3: Survey types
Nomemclature
Motivation survey=Trying to obtain insight into subconscious decision processes.
Market assessment=Research with a broad scope to cover all aspects that drive consumers when entering a certain market (both price, product, package, distribution, staffing, etc.).
Positioning=Knowing the images of brands is a condition to be able to position a certain brand in the market: what is the ideal competitive position, considering the images that brands have?
Line extension=Brands in the mature phase of their life cycle are often revitalized by adding new designs, colours, functions. The question is often how far a brand can be stretched without destroying the core values that made the brand strong.
B-to-B=In business-to-business research, respondents often have a strong hidden agenda, as opposed to consumers who are often not aware of their objectives and interests.
Pre-testing=Testing the acceptance and liking of product or communication concepts by consumers after the concepts have been nearly finished.
Concept testing=Testing the acceptance and liking by consumers of product or communication concepts in an early stage (mock-ups, descriptions/boards).
About the author
Norbert Scholl (1959) has studied both Economics and Psychology. He graduated at the University of Amsterdam in Consumer and Social Psychology. He has worked in the field of market research for 20 years with several agencies, specialising in qualitative research. He is co-author of the first book on qualitative research to be published on the Dutch market: “Qualitative Market research, Theory and practical cases” (1995) which has been translated into English in 2004. From 1994 to 2004, he worked as an account director for Research International in Rotterdam. He bore final responsibility for large national and international projects. His expertise covers both consumer research (fast moving, durables, services) as well as business-to-business research (financial institutions, government, transport). Since 2004 Norbert Scholl started his own company under the name of Candor Consult. The mission of Candor Consult is to offer clarity through spontaneity and impartiality (all three are different meanings of the latin “Candor”) in consumer insight projects, thereby facilitating decision making processes. Norbert Scholl can be contacted at: n.scholl@candorconsult.nl.