ABSTRACT
When conducting or evaluating research, it is critical to understand the landscape of research methods and the value different approaches provide. Researchers have many methods to choose from, each with their own strengths, limitations, and variance in the degree of external and internal validity they provide. Which form of validity researchers tend to care about most changes with the goals of the research, but also over time, with certain decades favoring one aspect over the other. Currently, there is a push within consumer research to enhance external validity and include more field experiments in research papers (e.g., Gneezy, 2017). However, history tells us that this may change; the process is cyclical, and what is in today may be gone tomorrow, only to reappear the day after. For this reason, it is critical not to simply follow trends, but rather to consider your research goals and how to provide the strongest evidence to support your research question.
