ABSTRACT
The bulk of behavioral research on humans relies on retrospective selfreport. We rely on study participants to tell us what they are feeling, how they typically behave, how often they have engaged in particular acts, and so on. This applies to much medical research as well: Patients report their experience of symptoms, their consumption of foodstuffs or medications, their exposure to toxins, and so on. Self-report helps human research to bridge an observational gap: Scientists are often interested in people’s realworld behavior but have no convenient way of observing it. Thus, we rely on respondents to bring their behavior into the bright light of scrutiny by telling us about it.
