Abstract:

Research tends to avoid heavy issues and conversations, resulting in weak insights and toxic positivity. If a respondent is going through something heavy, they tend to be excluded. Asking questions about dark times and contentious cultural issues is discouraged. Reporting back on heavy issues such as misogyny, racism, hate and anything ?illegal? is filtered out. The result is that research fails to reflect real life; in the ?market research world? no one drinks more than two beers on a night out, young people don't like Andrew Tate, racism doesn't exist, people aren't depressed or addicted and no one's unhappy with their relationships. The only ?problems? in the ?market research world? relate to being time crunched, or wanting to be a little healthier or needing to destress and relax. We could go on with more anodyne ?problems? that are generated by talking about categories and brands, rather than real life. 

In this paper, we outline the tension that creates the research industry?s aversion to uncomfortable truths, a phenomenon we call the ?comfort trap?. We then elaborate how the comfort trap leads to weak insights, and then challenge market researchers to get smart by getting more uncomfortable. Lastly, we describe three types of uncomfortable truths and discuss how they could be used to formulate insight and strategy. Many brands exist to solve problems, big and small, so research needs to have permission to go there, and tell uncomfortable stories.