Empirical research can expose ideology by confronting subjective motives with objective economic facts

Evidence

Adorno gave an example of what he meant: If we are confronted with the statement, based on some alleged authorities in humanistic sociology, that the so-called rural population is resistant to technical and social innovations because of its essentially conservative spirit, we will not be satisfied with explanations of this sort … We will … for example, send interviewers familiar with farmers into the country and encourage them to persist with further questions when farmers tell them that they stay on their farms out of love for their homeland and loyalty to the customs of their fathers. We will confront their conservatism with economic facts and investigate whether technical innovations were unprofitable in businesses below a certain size, whether these would require investment on such a scale that for a business of that type the technical rationalization offered would become unrational. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1931

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concretes Adorno’s method of critical empirical research: refusing surface ideological self-reports and testing them against structural economic data.
• XREF: Contrasts with the positivist empiricism critique the Institute developed; resonates with the Theory-and-praxis split in ch58. — connects to: Empirical testing can resolve ideologically loaded psychological questions — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 90; Predicting behavior from rational self-interest offers firmer ground than assuming ideological irrationality. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 533; The German group study targeted objective spirit rather than individual subjective opinion — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1881 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Empirical testing can resolve ideologically loaded psychological questions #corroborates (0.88) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 90
• Predicting behavior from rational self-interest offers firmer ground than assuming ideological irrationality. #corroborates (0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 533