Everyday Science Versus Empirical Research

Everyday Science Versus Empirical Research

Just like scientists, most of us have an avid interest in asking and answering questions about our world. We want to know why things happen, when and if they are likely to happen again, and how to reproduce or change them. Such knowledge enables us to predict our own behavior and that of others. We even collect data to aid us in this undertaking. Indeed, it has been argued that people are “everyday scientists” who conduct research projects to answer questions about behavior (Nisbett & Ross, 1980). When we perform poorly on an important test, we try to understand what caused our failure to remember or understand the material and what might help us do better the next time. When our good friends Eva and Joshua break up, despite what appeared to have been a relationship made in heaven, we try to determine what happened. When we contemplate the rise of terrorist acts around the world, we try to investigate the causes of this problem by looking at the people themselves, the situation around them, and the responses of others to them.

        The results of these “everyday” research projects can teach us many principles of human behavior. We learn through experience that if we give someone bad news, she or he may blame us even though the news was not our fault. We learn that people may become depressed after they fail at a task. We see that aggressive behavior occurs frequently in our society, and we develop theories to explain why this is so. These insights are part and parcel of everyday social life. In fact, much behavioral research involves the scientifi c study of everyday behavior (Heider, 1958; Kelly, 1967).