Undertaking research about innovation, technology and the future
We are increasingly being asked to conduct research which seeks to understand people’s responses and reactions to innovation and technology. Sometimes this includes technology that they are as yet unfamiliar with, but they will come across and get used to over the next decade or so. A previous article shared one example of such a project and how we tackled it.
We have learned a lot about the best way to tackle such subjects and we recently also held a discussion with a number of regulators and consumer bodies to share ideas and learning on this. Here is what we concluded:
Presenting complex evidence and information
Topics relating to the future / technology / innovation etc. can be extremely complex concepts to try to explain to lay people, and considerable efforts are needed to pitch these at the right level, so that they are not oversimplified but that people are still able to respond meaningfully. Some ways this can be done are:
Providing stimulus materials in ways that would suit different styles of learning (e.g. including animations, with voiceovers and text etc.)
Using trade-offs to show the implications of different decisions (e.g. more of this = less of that)
Ensuring research is positioned in a way that focuses on what is important to participants - i.e. the difference that developments will have on their future lives.
Using ‘experts’ to explain different concepts to participants.
The importance of getting stimulus materials right, recognising the amount of time required to develop and test these to ensure that they are pitched at the right level.
The need to be aware of different pre-existing levels of knowledge and understanding within participant groups and how to manage this.
Addressing fear
The idea of fear mongering and the importance of allaying fears when talking about the future is also important to consider. Participants can potentially feel quite overwhelmed in the research process, learning about such issues for the first time. The best way of mitigating against potentially causing unnecessary fear is bringing in the voices of experts, reassuring participants about the hypothetical nature of the discussions. Fear often can arise from participants’ reluctance to think about the future at all and people’s natural difficulty in assessing risk. As researchers we have a duty of care to make sure we are honest about what is known and what is unknown and to explain that whilst there may be risks, the worst case scenario is not necessarily the most likely outcome.
Quantifying public attitudes to future concepts
It is difficult, but not impossible, to seek public views about these sorts of topics at a quantitative level. Some of the approaches to achieving this are:
Seeking uninformed views before providing definitions of concepts – and being clear in reporting what people were responding to.
Using video to help bring concepts to life (and not being afraid to include videos in online surveys).
Thorough briefing of telephone interviewers to ensure they understand the concepts themselves.
Using discrete choice experiments to explore trade-offs.
Sample considerations
One further consideration is whether it is feasible to mix different generations when talking about the future, given that different age groups would have different ‘stakes’ in future scenarios. One useful technique is to encourage people to ‘project‘ their thoughts and feelings on to other members of their own family to help bring concepts to life (e.g. how would your grandchildren feel about that?) Related to this, it will be important to consider during analysis whether differences in view come down to age/ life stage/ experience, or generation/ cohort.