How We Do Research
What we do
Real World Labs conducts qualitative research built on lived experience. We spend real time with real people to understand why they think, decide, and act the way they do. We call this approach Lived Experience Intelligence. It is designed to reach the depth that a survey cannot.
What lived experience immersion means
Immersion means understanding people in their real lives, not in artificial settings. We use digital ethnography platforms such as Indeemo to access people's routines, decisions and daily contexts as they happen — in the moment and in real time. Because people capture their own experiences as they live them, we avoid two of the biggest problems in research: recall bias, where people misremember, and researcher bias, where a researcher's presence changes what people say and do.
How this differs from a survey
A survey measures what people say in a single moment, in answer to questions someone else wrote. It is good at counting opinions at scale. It cannot explain where those opinions come from, how firmly they are held, or how they play out in real decisions. Our research is built for exactly those questions. A simple test guides everything we take on: if a survey could have told you this, we should not be doing the study.
How this differs from a focus group
A focus group gathers strangers in a room for an hour or two and asks them to discuss a topic. People in groups perform, defer, and simplify. We work with people individually, over days or weeks, in their own settings. What we lose in speed we gain in honesty and depth.
What goes into a study
We run two kinds of study. Reality Reports are our full-depth studies: they take around two months, involve larger samples, and carry our most extensive fieldwork and analysis. Reality Checks are the fast counterpart: completed in 7 to 14 days, with smaller samples and a simpler design, for questions that need a rigorous answer quickly. In both, methods are chosen to fit the question — digital ethnography, in-depth qualitative interviews, participatory research, and cross-sectional surveys where breadth is needed. Analysis is systematic and evidence-led: we distinguish clearly between what participants said, what we found, and what we think it means.
Our standards
All research is conducted with informed consent and faithful representation of what people told us. Much of our work is visual and public: participants may appear in our films, footage and published findings. Wherever a participant's profile, image or footage appears in the public domain, it is there because they knowingly agreed to it, in writing, before anything was published. Participants are people to be understood, not mined for soundbites.
FAQs
What kind of research do you do?
Real World Labs is a lived experience research studio. Our specialism is qualitative research: understanding why people think, decide and act the way they do by being present in their real lives. We are pragmatic about methods, the research question always comes first, and we choose the instruments that answer it best.
How does your research compare with a survey?
Surveys are excellent at measuring what people think at scale, and we use them when the question calls for breadth. What lived experience research adds is depth: why people hold the views they do, and what they actually do in daily life. In practice we are very pragmatic, we have deep experience bringing qualitative and quantitative research together in mixed methods studies, such as the multi-country Global Epilepsy Needs Study.
What is digital ethnography?
Digital ethnography means participants document their own lives - in video, photos and words - using a platform such as Indeemo, as things happen. We see routines, decisions and reactions in real time, in real settings, without a researcher in the room changing the behaviour (researcher bias) or asking people to remember it later (recall bias).
How are participants recruited?
We recruit people whose real lives match the research question, screened for genuine experience rather than willingness to talk. Every participant knows what the study involves, how their contributions will be used, and agrees to it in writing before anything begins.
How long does a study take?
Reality Reports, our full-depth studies, take around two months. Reality Checks take 7 to 14 days: smaller samples and a simpler design, for questions that need a rigorous answer quickly.
Who funds Reality Reports?
We do. Reality Reports and Reality Checks are self-funded and independent... no client, no sponsor, no agenda. Commissioned work for clients is a separate strand of the business and is never mixed into them.
How do I commission a study?
Tell us the decision you're trying to make. We'll work with you to shape the research question, then design a study that answers it and we'll be honest about which methods that takes. Start on the Commission Research page or write to info@realworldlabs.ai.
Who do you work with?
Public bodies, private companies, think tanks, philanthropic institutes, patient organisations and media organisations i.e. any organisation that needs to understand why people think, decide and act the way they do.
What happens to participants' footage?
Nothing appears in public without the participant's knowing, written agreement, given before publication - fully informed consent. We believe participants are people to be understood, not mined for soundbites.