Hidden Theory - You’re Always Theorizing, but What if You’re Not in Control of It?

We are always theorizing! We have a theory for most of the things we encounter or are aware of in life. We use these theories to help us make sense of the world, to inform our decision making and, importantly, help us to predict future outcomes, attitudes and behaviours when a similar set of circumstances arises. Since we are conscious of our theories, we believe we shape the theories we carry, that we control them. But are we in control of our theories and the processes that develop these theories? Is there hidden theory we are not aware of, driving thoughts, actions and decision making?  If we are not in control of our theorizing, this means that our sense making of the world, decision making and future predictions are inaccurate. 

This is especially concerning in the world of business research, where so many people are strangely afraid of theory, or “academic thinking”. It is usually assumed that professionals involved in this type of  research, such as market researchers, are objective and follow research methods and techniques that lead to an accurate understanding of the subject being studied. However, what if the theorising used to develop these research approaches is wrong and inadequate? This is especially important for research focused on understanding a world that is complex, fast changing and highly adaptive. To understand such a complex world, research needs to be based on accurate and solid theorising. Research based on inadequate theorising implies that what seems to be plausible in widely used market research, methods and techniques is fundamentally flawed and produces findings that are unreliable and invalid. This includes conducting interviews and customer observations that lack proper ethnographic design and method, depending on focus groups that are known to be unreliable and invalid, conducting surveys that are not shaped by theory, survey design that does not emphasize the importance of contextual factors and human cognition, and doing market segmentation based on rigid unrealistic perspectives and theories of human behaviour. This is a serious problem!

Before we can determine how to address this problem, we first need to understand what hidden theory is and what its causes are. Hidden theory is the unconscious, habituated, systematic theorizing that is used to inform methods and approaches to better understand the complex and adaptive world we live in. It is a normal part of how our minds make sense of the world. Our minds generally try to identify patterns, rules and/or perspectives that can help us quickly understand what is going on around us. If the world were a stable and unchanging place, this unconscious, systematic theorizing would lead to a more accurate understanding of the world. However, the type of world we live in is changing and adaptive world, which means there is a constant need to shift our theorizing of the world. Unfortunately, this takes effort and work, and, well, we humans are generally averse to effort and work, and would rather stick with our old out-of-date theories of the world. Think of the school bully who terrorised you as a child. If you were ever to meet this person many years later it is likely that they are a completely different person. However, the unconscious hidden theory that informs our attitudes and behaviours toward this person are stuck in our past, leading us to being unable to accurately see and experience the person they are today. The same is true in the world of research.   

Hidden theory can influence and shape human focused research in various ways, such as helping define limited and/or inadequate research questions, not doing enough to understand the culture and/or sub-cultures associated with particular activities and phenomena, believing that different types of people will have similar responses to the same stimulus and not considering the impact of contextual and situational factors in shaping human behaviour, attitudes and beliefs. 

Given the hidden nature of hidden theory, how do we begin to develop new theories relevant to our world and new theories that are reflective of our changing adaptive world?  How do we ensure that the theory we are using to inform our approach to research will result in accurate depictions and assessments of people and the world they live in? How do we begin to develop a more accurate understanding of our world?

The answer is a radically human centric approach to thinking about research and humans. This means we have to learn how to explore and understand each challenge or question we seek to answer in the following ways. We must see every challenge or problem as unique. Whilst we may assume that the challenge or question we face is similar to other previous situations, we should consciously approach the challenge or question attempting to understand it as something that is unique and not necessarily related to other previous situations. This also includes considering how contextual and situational factors influence the problem we are trying to understand. This will allow us to understand both the obvious and nuanced characteristics of the challenge or the question. By not assuming that the present challenge is similar to other problems in the past or others that seem similar to it, we are better able to build a new more accurate theory for each new challenge. Whilst this is costly, as it entails extensive work at the beginning of a project to understand the problem, this approach will deliver a better, more accurate and meaningful understanding of the world. 

Vurain Tabvuma