Affirmations and power dynamics in UX Research
Follow along as I discuss Motivational Interviewing and how it has helped me cultivate an equitable and engaged UX Research practice. Part 2/4 of the MI series.
This is the second article in my series about using Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques in UX research. In the last article, I discussed the first construct of Motivational Interviewing (MI): Open-Ended Questions and how they are the direct result of having an open-ended approach, which is critical to gathering actionable data for products and services. At the end of the article, I mentioned we would talk about Affirmations, and here we are!
Before I dive into affirmations, I want to note something I take very seriously. Motivational Interviewing is a technique used by therapists in a clinical setting. I am not a therapist, and although I have been formally trained in MI, I am not advocating that UX researchers should ever become therapists, or that we should encourage users to discuss topics that would cause them distress. UX Researchers should always be keenly aware when the session becomes outside our scope of practice and be ready to redirect when we need to do so. The Nielsen Norman group has a very good resource on thinking through the ethics of UX Research.
What I do want to say with this series is that we stand to become better researchers when we consider evidence-based techniques from other disciplines that can help us elicit open and honest feedback. In this article, I want to explore Affirmations and how they have been especially useful to me in redistributing the power dynamic during qualitative sessions.
What is an affirmation?
Affirmations are hard to describe because so much of what constitutes an affirmation will be dependent on the individual and their unique circumstances. Personally, I like this definition by the Homeless Hub:
Affirmations are statements and gestures that recognize client strengths and acknowledge behaviors that lead in the direction of positive change, no matter how big or small. Affirmations build confidence in one’s ability to change. To be effective, affirmations must be genuine and congruent.
Genuine and congruent. I love that summary (see, I just affirmed it!) because it speaks to some of the difficulties I have experienced with this technique.
Why use affirmations?
When I first learned this technique, I learned from someone who trained with one of the founders of MI. As any good training goes, we had to practice OARS over and over in various different settings and scenarios. Admittedly, affirmations were the most difficult concept for me to grasp. I could never really figure out how to do it without feeling like it was artificial or forced. I don’t particularly like it when I feel like I’m the target of false flattery, and I don’t like to just give effusive praise when it’s not sincere.
But here’s the thing. Affirmation isn’t really about blind compliments. Affirming a participant means recognizing when they are taking action-oriented steps towards engaging in positive, self-serving behavior, and motivating them to continue down that path. It is a key component to building trust and fostering an open environment in which a participant feels comfortable divulging information to you.
Power Dynamics and the UX Interview
It’s important to recognize that there’s a power dynamic at play between the interviewer and interviewee. Participants come to our sessions with an understanding that we’re in charge of the session. Additionally, we are the ones who re-tell the story and from that re-telling, we make a name for ourselves in the field. Although we pay participants for their time, we are not UX Researchers without users.
Moreover, as researchers, we are engaged in a sort of negative work, as Nancy Scheper Hughes’ describes Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia‘s work. That is to say, we have a dual, sometimes competing, allegiance to the users who participate in this study and those who are funding the study. It is our role to figure out how to advocate for users’ best interests while keeping business goals in mind.
To some degree, the power dynamic will always exist. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t reduce the differential. If we want to break down that power dynamic and foster a safe environment, perfecting the art of affirmation is one of the best ways I have found over the years to do that.
Redistributing Power in UX Research
When applied to UX, affirmations allow participants to be more comfortable to show their true behaviors. During research sessions, we’re doing something a little different than traditional Motivational Interviewing. We are not looking for people to be confident in their ability to change, as the definition above suggests, because we are not looking for them to change behaviors during an interview. What we do want is to build confidence in a participant’s ability to share.
Consider a recent example, which I’ve written more about the details of which I’ve described in this article. One of the major projects I have underway centers on Black and Latinx folx. The driving research question of this study centers on clinical trial participation. We understand that some diseases affect Black and Latinx folx at higher rates, yet they represent a smaller proportion of clinical trial volunteers. Our job is to determine barriers and facilitators to clinical trial enrollment among Black and Latinx folx.
Now, for some readers, this is an obvious question given the well-known harms perpetrated against Black and Brown bodies by the medical institution (in addition to the Tuskegee study, which is linked, you can also read about forced sterilization and health disparities and many other examples with a quick Google search). As a researcher, it’s really important to understand the checkered history of racial abuse in the medical industry. I have a lot of experience working with marginalized individuals and have learned a lot over the years about institutionalized violence.
So when I discuss affirmations for this particular study, I am not saying that we as researchers should use affirmations to encourage people to recall trauma. I am saying we should use affirmations to redistribute the power dynamic so that they can articulate experiences that they feel comfortable divulging. Undoubtedly, systemic harms hold some explanatory power here. But we do not want to make the assumption that they hold ALL the explanatory power, or that people feel the same way or feel the same intensity regarding these abuses. We do not want to fall in the trap of reductionist thinking — whereby we assume that groups of people are monolithic. Moreover, we want to avoid thinking that because we know something empirically, that means we also know it experientially.
And really, affirmations in a UX practice begin with this kind of awareness — one in which we acknowledge that we can know things but not experience them.
Affirmations in Action
Returning to this specific project, the following excerpt is an example of an affirmation. In it, a researcher is talking to a participant about his previous participation in clinical trials [the transcript has been modified for privacy protection].
Researcher: “Have you participated in any clinical trials in the past?”
Participant: “Yeah. So, I’m gay and I participated in a study about gay males. The doctors wanted to learn more about us because up until then, there was really very little known about gay men and their behaviors. This was like, in the 80’s and there was a lot of misconceptions about us — like all of us had AIDS or something.”
Researcher: Wow, that must have been a big decision for you to participate at a time when it was pretty hostile towards the LGTBQ community.
Participant: Yeah, it was. But, I wanted to help educate people and you know, reduce the stigma about us. I thought if something good could come of it, it was worth it.
Researcher: Yeah, that’s remarkable that you opted to participate to help reduce the stigma when the stigma itself was really strong. That was a really bold move and I just want to applaud you for that.
This Latinx LGBTQIA+ participant was clearly very proud of participating in a clinical trial geared towards ending stigma for homosexuality. In this instance, he did not need compliments. He wasn’t looking for praise. But he was sharing genuine and challenging information, and we wanted him to feel safe continuing to do that. Using affirmations helped us to encourage him and highlight the powerful self efficacy he was demonstrating. Essentially, by emphasizing and affirming self efficacy, we restore a sense of agency among our participants. And that helps us break down this power dynamic. We want him to know that we acknowledge how hard it must have been to decide to enroll in a clinical trial to change a society that was committed to misunderstanding his identity.
As I discussed earlier, when our participants come to our sessions, the implicit agreement that the researcher is in charge creates a power differential. To some extent, that will always be true. And yet, we can still demonstrate respect to our participants, and in turn, we can use feedback built on trust and mutual respect to advocate on their behalf.
Affirmations are not about ego stroking or superficial flattery. They’re really about creating a safe space in which participants notice the remarkable things they have done, and feel comfortable speaking from a place in which they believe it.
Tips for Applying Affirmations In Your UX Research Practice
Perhaps you’re already in the practice of using affirmations. If not, and you want to start, here are some things to consider during your interviews:
- Where is the participant talking about an achievement?
- Where are they demonstrating that they know something?
- When do they talk about doing something even though they don’t want to, or maybe were afraid to do it?
- Where are they talking about a skill they possess?
- When do they talk about behavior that serves them well?
- When do they talk about your product from their perspective?
- What are some insights they’ve shared that help you communicate usability problems to your stakeholder?
When you hear your participants talk about any of these things, I like to use some of the following affirmation phrases:
- “Wow, that’s a really remarkable achievement!”
- “You have a lot of knowledge in this area. I appreciate you sharing that with us.”
- “You mentioned you were afraid to talk with your doctor but you did it anyway. It sounds like you were being really smart about taking care of yourself.”
- “I love how you phrased that.”
- “I know this wasn’t easy, but you did it and we appreciate your time.”
- “I know some of this felt a little uncomfortable, but the information you’ve given is so valuable to us.”
- “That experience sounds really challenging but you were able to make it. That’s something to be proud of.”
There are a lot of resources available on affirmations. It takes time to come up with your own style, so don’t be discouraged if it feels a little awkward in the beginning. Rather, embrace the awkwardness and vulnerability. That’s where all good UX research starts.
