Cultural congruence between investigators and participants masks the unknown unknowns: shame research as an example.
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.
Fessler
Daniel M T
DM
Department of Anthropology and Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553, USA. dfessler@anthro.ucla.edu
D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research; D012752:Shame