The Good Place: Us vs. Them - Why We Need Research To See Other Peoples' Perspectives

I love The Good Place on Netflix.

There was one episode in Season 3 that struck a chord with me. Eleanor had a temper tantrum at a party and stormed out. When she was outside, Eleanor asked Simone, a 'brain scientist' why she acted that way, and Simone replied:

“Here’s my guess. As humans evolved the first big problem we had to overcome was me vs. us - learning to sacrifice a little individual freedom for the benefit of a group. Like sharing food and resources so we don’t starve or get eaten by tigers - things like that. The next problem to overcome was us vs. them - trying to see other groups different from ours as equal. That one we’re still struggling with. That’s why we still have racism and nationalism and why fans of Stone Cold Steve Austin hate fans of The Rock.”

This quote shows that the ‘us vs. them’ stage is a difficult one to overcome, but what is 'us vs. them'? 'Us vs. them' is a social identity theory to explain group behaviour where there are 'in-groups' (us) and 'out-groups' (them).

Tomer Sharon, a lean user research author, conducted a survey that found 86% of product ideas come from personal pain. This shows that there is the assumption that other people like 'me' or 'us' (in-group) have the same pain too, but this may not be the case.

User research helps break down the 'us vs. them' stage, as it builds empathy and understanding of other groups of people, or different 'user groups'. It also builds understanding of the extent to which people as part of the 'in-group' do share the same pain or problem that a product or service is created to solve.

That’s why being in the shoes of the user is so important: It allows us to understand the context of their problem that a product or service could solve, and to test assumptions throughout the process.

Understanding the perspectives of other people helps to "see other groups different from ours as equal" - this is the biggest value that user research brings and the research needs to be done well and sensitively. The idea of a 'user group', and personas too, should not be built on stereotypes, but evidence of how people behave and their needs.

What do you think?