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For a study in the adoption of new technology, my student and I are developing a questionnaire that will poll respondents on their opinions of what their colleagues would think about benefits/problems of adopting a particular technology. This is research in social science/business but not strictly psychology, and as we are not psychologists, we don't know the literature.

Have psychologists investigated questions of the type What do you think other people would think? We are not asking for a tutorial here, just a pointer where should we should start looking.

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  • $\begingroup$ To me, handing out questionnaires for opinion needs the results to be viewed with some caution. Do the candidates really trust that you wish them to be truthful in what they report, especially when respondents are not anonymous? $\endgroup$ – Chris Rogers Feb 20 '19 at 23:59
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    $\begingroup$ I welcome you to Psychology.SE, but as for asking for opinions here, questions such as these are off-topic here, hence my comment, and not an answer. Questions and answers here are to be based on scientific study, backed by references to those studies. Are you able to reframe your question in any way to fit the scope of this site? On top of that, can you provide some background to how you devised your questionnaire and how it is to be used and results collated? Are there any similar studies you have come across which use the approach you have put together? $\endgroup$ – Chris Rogers Feb 21 '19 at 0:10
  • $\begingroup$ @ChrisRogers, many thanks for your comments. I've tried to focus the question better. We were asked a similar question "who has used this method before"? We couldn't think of anyone, but this isn't our field, which is why we are here. Perhaps we've hit upon something novel, but I seriously doubt that. $\endgroup$ – Peter Leopold Feb 22 '19 at 3:16
  • $\begingroup$ @StevenJeuris, the motivation to ask questions this way is to collect much more data from a single person than just his or her opinion of a technology. Asking What do you think X (and Y and Z) think? will give us a useful diversity of opinion. Surely others have done this before.We would just like to know where to start looking. $\endgroup$ – Peter Leopold Feb 22 '19 at 3:24
  • $\begingroup$ It could be that this a Game Theory question, or an Organizational Behavior question, and so is not a question from annals of human psychology. Would the experts here concur with that assessment? $\endgroup$ – Peter Leopold Feb 22 '19 at 15:00
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As an active participant in Cross Validated/SE, I know the importance of a question having an answer -- even an answer that kicks the can down the road -- so that visitors to the site can see that a question is not as hopeless as a message in a bottle, but rather aspires to be a shout from a tenement window, where you know that someone, somewhere will shout back.

Call it an echo, but I'm shouting back at myself. In topical area, my question regards organizational behavior, but the spirit of my question is game theoretic, and I think the body of literature I am searching for is in game theory in organziations -- every over-achiever's favorite sport! To that end, Zhu and Weynant (2003), looks promising . . . ?

And while it is only tangentially relevant, I think I might prime the pump of other responders by citing the most famous what-do-you-think-he-thinks? problem of all time: The Room with Two Doors.

[OK, that was a spoiler, but really you should seek your chuckles elsewhere. We're doing research here! ;) ]

Zhu, K., & Weyant, J. P. (2003). Strategic decisions of new technology adoption under asymmetric information: a game‐theoretic model. Decision sciences, 34(4), 643-675.

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