Cybernetics and interviewing

The interview is the most frequently used, but often disputed, method of data collection in the social sciences. Methodological research after the sources of response errors in interviews has borrowed concepts and insights from cybernetics. For example, interviewing in search of “subjective phenomena” like attitudes is conceived as a form of black box analysis. Computer models simulate response processes leading to response errors. The interview appears to be governed by a combination of open and closed loop control. Comparative research into response effects appears to be hampered by the self‐referentiality of the “survey industry”, and qualitative interviews can be viewed as social systems closely related to the autopoietic system of a conversation.