The Design Psychologist | Psychology for UX, Product, Service, Instructional, Interior, and Game Designers How Well Do Our Words Reflect Our Inside World? A psychological perspective on the limits of self-report, introspection, and understanding the human mind
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Jul 14, 2025 Can you really trust what users say? This discussion reveals the pitfalls of self-reporting in UX research, where memory and self-perception can lead to inaccuracies. Historical perspectives illustrate the complexities of human introspection, demonstrating how people's verbal accounts often differ from their actual behaviors. Key experiments highlight the challenges of capturing true motivations and cognitive processes. Overall, it's a call for blending self-reported data with observational insights to better understand user experiences and inform design decisions.
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Wundt's Introspection Experiment
- Wilhelm Wundt's 1860s introspection method involved verbal reports of sensations from handling objects.
- It was an early attempt to explore the mind but lacked scientific reliability.
Attitude vs. Behavior Gap
- Attitude and behavior often don't align, making self-reported feelings unreliable proxies for actions.
- This attitude-behavior gap explains why asking people their opinions doesn't always predict their actual behavior.
Stockings Choice Experiment
- In the 1970s stockings experiment, participants chose identical items but rationalized their choices with fabricated reasons.
- They also showed a right-hand bias, revealing limits in self-awareness of decision reasons.