Spotlight preoccupation with purpose in a Covid-19 world is redundant, according to Lacey. Brands who want to appeal to the mainstream should be considering how they can improve lives for example, through supporting a youth club, offering coupons, or keeping prices low. This audience dont sit there and think about the deep meaning of an ad; they like directness, he says. Lacey cites one research participant who wasnt impressed with brands reaching out during lockdown. They remind me of those beta males who are trying too hard, pretending to be your friend. Making the workforce more diverse is a good start. Then youre surrounded by people with different biases from yourself Andrew Tenzer Awareness of bias As humans, were all capable of bias, even if were market researchers with honed critical-thinking skills. The trick is accepting that it exists, and continuing to analyse, interpret and check for bias all the time. Ella Fryer-Smith launched the Unequal Truths podcast during lockdown, to tell the untold stories of researchers from low-income backgrounds. She believes we need to scrutinise assumptions about what matters at every stage of research from setting objectives, who were speaking to, and how were speaking to them, right through to the final analysis. Increasing time pressure from clients, however, and the premium placed on a fast turnaround with lightning-quick insights, makes it ever more challenging for researchers to consider bias in their analysis properly. Murray says: The risk is that we dont step back and think about how insights have been developed, and if they are objective. There is also concern that these biases might become burned into new technology. For example, in 2015 Amazon abandoned an automated recruitment experiment when it discovered its artificial intelligence (AI) hiring tool was not rating candidates in a gender-neutral way. In the summer of 2020, the A level statistical model was another stark illustration of what goes wrong when assumptions pollute data. AI and algorithms learn from historical 18 practice, but what if were hardwiring bias into market research tech systems? Alienating audiences The elephant in the room is that very few research consultants come from a working-class background, so they do not reflect the mainstream audience from which they are tasked with gleaning insights. It was during an ethnographic field trip to a Sheffield council estate that it dawned on Fryer-Smith that her colleague did not understand the nuances of who they were talking to. We were in the [participants] car, when the interviewer made a disparaging comment about all the satellite dishes on the estate. They had no idea that what they were saying might be alienating. Konrad Collao, co-founder of Craft, had a similar experience during his early career as a researcher. Travelling with a London colleague to conduct research in Bristol, the train from Paddington slowly passed the council estate where he grew up. There were lots of St Georges flags flying because of the World Cup, he recalls. And she said, look at all the chavs flying their racist flags, and I said, thats where I live. In his latest book, Head, hand, heart: the struggle for dignity and status in the 21st century, David Goodhart explores a societal condition he