How I Became a Naturalistic Researcher

Key points

Carefully controlled experiments can prevent us from making discoveries.

They are good for testing hypotheses, but not necessarily for gaining insights.

A naturalistic approach can be difficult and challenging, but it can be very fruitful.

Somehow, I started to do naturalistic studies of decision-making without appreciating what I was getting myself into.

Naturalistic research means exploring the phenomenon you want to understand in the setting where it happens. If you want to know how people make tough decisions, you find a way to watch them or interview them, or review subsequent accounts of what they did. You concentrate your energies on the phenomenon, instead of passively adhering to the methodology. As I write this, I realize that it seems pretty obvious.

But it’s