Welcome To The Club: The psychology of belonging and the misapplication of 'objectivity'

This paper questions one of the fundamental assumptions of research: that of the researchers' objectivity, through a case study on behalf of Land Rover that demonstrates the move away from objectivity in market research.

Welcome To The Club: The psychology of belonging and the misapplication of 'objectivity'

Rhiannon Price and Steve Hill

Introduction

"Objectivity": judgement based on observable phenomena and not influenced by emotions or personal prejudices.

As market researchers, our mission, or even raison d'etre, is to get to 'the truth', and while we have many mechanisms to help us do this, underpinning it all is the concept of objectivity. As market researchers, remaining 'objective' is instilled in us as thegolden rule. No matter what the subject or sample, we are told to remove any bias that we, as individuals, might...

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