Subjects interviewing subjects. A new interdisciplinary methodology for human experience research

Subjective experience is inherently filtered and escapes direct access, yet qualitative social scientists continue using interviews without fully addressing how this filtering shapes what they hear. The abstract argues that this methodological blind spot—the "white elephant" in the room—undermines the validity of interview data. Microphenomenology is presented as an innovative approach that directly confronts the subjectivity of both interviewee and researcher, offering a way to produce applicable science that generates real solutions to complex human problems of coexistence.

Study at a glance

Abstract

If nowadays there is enough evidence to sustain that subjective experience escapes from us and we filter the reality, why do we social scientists continue asking the same questions?, what do we get in response?, and how do we analyze the responses obtained? These methodological questions are the white elephant in the hegemonic room of our qualitative method per excellence, the interview; where despite having that feeling that there is something in the middle of the room which is so big and uncomfortable, that perhaps we prefer to continue ignoring it. But for those of us who seek to do different and applicable science which generates real solutions to the complex human problems of coexistence, microphenomenology emerges as an innovative view to face the challenge of subjectivitycof the interviewed and of the researchers.