Cultural Consensus Theory: Applications and Frequently Asked Questions

TLDR

Consensus theory estimates culturally appropriate answers and individual knowledge differences in ethnographic contexts, modeling the question‑answer process with categorical data, while an informal analytic version provides similar insights with fewer assumptions. The article outlines the assumptions, interview materials, and analytic procedures for conducting a consensus analysis. The article also discusses common issues that arise during consensus analysis application.

Abstract

In the ethnographic context, where answers to questions are unknown, consensus theory estimates the culturally appropriate or correct answers to the questions and individual differences in cultural knowledge. The cultural consensus model is a formal model of the process for asking and answering questions and is limited to categorical response data. An informal version of the model is available as a set of analytic procedures and obtains similar information with fewer assumptions. This article describes the assumptions, appropriate interview materials, and analytic procedures for carrying out a consensus analysis. Finally, issues that sometimes arise during the application of a consensus analysis are discussed.