Compromised need and the label effect: An examination of claims and evidence

Abstract

Abstract To establish whether the compromised need/the label effect is a frequently occurring phenomenon or not, available studies of the phenomenon are examined and claims are compared with evidence. Studies that reportedly have verified the phenomenon are shown to suffer from technical problems that put the claim of verification in doubt. Studies that have reported low percentages of questions changing from the initial query during large‐scale studies of user‐librarian negotiations could indicate that users are quite often asking for precisely what they want. However, these studies are found not to be definite falsifications, as the librarians did not conduct in‐depth interviews and therefore may have failed to discover the users' real information needs. Whether the compromised need/the label effect is a frequently occurring phenomenon or not cannot be conclusively confirmed or disconfirmed. However, the compromised need/the label effect is not the obvious truism or empirical fact that it has otherwise been claimed to be.

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