People are better at predicting other people’s behaviour than their own
In research, particularly qualitative research, we often make efforts to understand what that specific individual thinks. If a participant starts to tell us what other people would do we often bring the participant back on course to find out what they would do to help ensure that we are really understanding them as individuals.
However, there seems to be 2 reasons that suggest deliberately asking participants what other people would do could actually be very beneficial!
Firstly - people are better at predicting other people’s behaviour than their own. This interesting read over on the British Psychological Society Digest suggests that people are instinctually good social psychologists but at the same time poor self-psychologists. When predicting our own behaviour we fail to take the influence of the situation into account (hence why researchers need to be careful not to assume that intentions turn into actual behaviour). By contrast, when predicting the behaviour of others, we correctly factor in the influence of the circumstances. Psychologists in the above linked study found that students were better able to predict how other people would react in situations that involved helpful behaviour, charity donations and cheating compared with predictions on their own behaviour
Secondly - asking people what others would do can get you closer to understanding the perceived social norms. Norms form an incredibly important part of the wider context in which behaviour occurs and therefore understanding how to change behaviour
So, maybe ask your participant what somebody else would do, you might discover something really interesting!
