Persisting with further questions exposes ideology behind stated explanations
Evidence
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. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 476
Categorization
- DEFINE: Concrete illustration of what Adorno means by ‘objective forms of socialization’ versus subjective explanation.
- SHARE: A pointed example for anyone working on interview methodology — the refusal to accept a farmer’s stated motive at face value.
- XREF: connects to: Defining a field’s core questions requires prolonged diffuse dissatisfaction; Oppositional thinking interrogates the assumptions behind authoritative questions; Interviewers sequenced ethnic questions late to let deep-seated attitudes surface openly. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 450 (+7 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Defining a field’s core questions requires prolonged diffuse dissatisfaction; Oppositional thinking interrogates the assumptions behind authoritative questions; Interviewers sequenced ethnic questions late to let deep-seated attitudes surface openly. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 450 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Question-based debate techniques can backfire by humiliating the rhetorical rather than testing the belief
#complicates(0.78) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 242 - Presenting disconfirming evidence to partisans strengthens rather than weakens their views
#complicates(0.75) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 132 - Empirical testing can resolve ideologically loaded psychological questions
#complicates(0.74) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 90