Listening: A narrative approach to everyday understandings and behavior

Like their counterparts in anthropology, sociology, and philosophy, behavioral economists and social psychologists are concerned with the individual's conceptual understanding of the causes and meanings of events. However, both disciplines have focused primarily on process or outcomes - the effects of these categorizations on judgments and choices - rather than on origins or contents. A number of important questions remain: Where do these conceptual categories come from? Which accounts are most persuasive in various contexts? Etzioni (1988) argues that value (normative) and non-rational emotional (affective) considerations are most important, and supports the claim that conceptual systems are significant causes of behavior. This suggests a clear research agenda: to explore these conceptual systems to learn more about the ways in which actors both share meaning and understand specific events and situations. But commonly-used experimental designs and formats may be too restrictive. We use the metaphors of 'listening' and 'conversation' to describe an alternative approach, which we employed. Our results led us to conclude that a free-narrative approach is a rich method, one that is particularly appropriate for the study of everyday understandings and real-world behavior.