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Cultural congruence between investigators and participants masks the unknown unknowns: Shame research as an example

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2010

Daniel M. T. Fessler
Daniel M. T. Fessler
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553. [email protected]://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/
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Abstract

In addition to questions of the representativeness of Western, educated samples vis-à-vis the rest of humanity, the prevailing practice of studying individuals who are culturally similar to the investigator entails the problem that key features of the phenomena under investigation may often go unrecognized. This will occur when investigators implicitly rely on folk models that they share with their participants.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 2-3 , June 2010 , pp. 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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