Humans are social creatures with an innate desire to be agreeable, especially when sitting across from an interviewer. When a researcher asks:
The participant almost invariably responds: 'Yes, definitely.'
This produces false signal. The participant isn't committing time, money, or cognitive effort—they are simply answering politely. You have validated a feature that nobody may ever actually use.
The Behavioral Rule: Ask about past actions, not future speculation. People are terrible predictors of their future behavior, but excellent historians of their past struggles.
Level 2 · Qualitative Discovery & Moderated Interviews