Haters

You see them on your Facebook feeds.  You see them in market research.  The people who think nothing good has happened since 1981. The people who hate everything.

This article tries to get inside the heads of these vexing killjoys – and it builds its narrative around people who relentlessly criticize Pokemon Go.

Research suggests that some are like this just because they are sour people by nature.  But other times folks play the contrarian to make themselves stand out against the masses.  In one study, if you told participants they were average in some respect, they were more likely to speak out against the majority opinion in a subsequent discussion.

Does this mean anything for market research?  Not infrequently we encounter respondents in research who seem to reflexively dislike anything that is put in front of them. Do we screen out those people somehow?  Do we do something at the start of the interview to put them in a better mood?  Or is it in some way beneficial to hear the opinions of these nattering nabobs of negativism?