Autodriving: A Photoelicitation Technique

Abstract

This article presents a literature review that explains the antecedents and values of visual research. Then it illustrates the use of photographs and audio recordings of informants to enrich interviews. The term “autodriving” indicates that the interview is “driven” by informants who are seeing and hearing their own behavior. Autodriving addresses the obtrusiveness and reactivity inherent in consumer-behavior research by explicitly encouraging consumers to comment on their consumption behavior as the photographs and recordings represent it. Thus, the research aims for a negotiated interpretation of consumption events. The results suggest that photographs offer exciting challenges to informants by encouraging their need to explain themselves.