Often, when we think of research we may think about people in lab coats or in tweed jackets with elbow patches. You might envision these people scribbling equations on chalkboards or paging through dusty books late at night in their offices, trying to determine how energy really creates force. To get a sense of the popular view of researchers, try image searching the word “researcher.” Look at all those lab coats!

If you image search the word “researcher,” you can see a quick snapshot of the public imagination around research.

In fact, however, research doesn’t require a high-tech lab or a PhD. Instead, it’s a prominent aspect of our everyday lives.

If you look at the dictionary definition of the verb “research,” it’s much less intimidating than your imagination might suggest:

Verb: investigate systematically. (“Research”)

So, consider this definition when thinking about how research might factor into everyday activities.

Research is all around us

Picture this: You are in charge of a dinner party for your best friend’s birthday party and you have to plan the menu. You find out there will be two people attending with dietary restrictions. They are both pegan. Pegan?! Even though you might not know quite what that is (yet),  you figure you’ll make one dish for the majority of people attending, and then you can make a special dish for those two people who are pegan. So  now, you just have to research: what is pegan? That’s just one way research might show up in a daily activity. But that’s kind of an outlandish example. How often will you plan a dinner party for people who are combining the paleo diet and veganism (that’s pegan if you haven’t researched it by now)?

How else do we engage in research in daily activities? Checking the internet to see if broccoli has more vitamin C than kale? That’s research. Reading rottentomatoes or metacritic reviews before ponying up $3.99 to rent a movie? Also research. Asking your friends on social media to recommend a good standing desk? More research.

Research is not a solo act

When thinking about the activities mentioned above, they are often completed with someone other than yourself. Consider the activity of deciding what the best choice might be for dinner on a Friday night. If you have a family, you most likely are making this decision as a team (thus, a collaborative activity). Or if you are trying to choose a new cell phone plan and you share a plan with a partner (whether that partner is a spouse or a roommate), this is now a collaborative activity and you have to research and make this decision as a team.

In that same regard, the act of research includes the community. When you are trying to research which new cell phone plan to buy, the cell phone company and individuals who work at the company, other patrons who work at the company may be involved in the research that you conduct to make your decision. Communities become involved in everyday research by their very existence–the grocery stores where you shop when planning for your meals, the religious buildings where you research the spiritual components that you want to follow to help you get through your daily routines, and the workplace where we work together with others.

Essentially, we engage in research on our own and with others daily in an organic and natural manner. It’s not an activity that we have to take a lot of time out to do and it does not require hours upon hours in a library or navigating the internet. Instead, research is involved in the way that we think and in the way we communicate with others everyday.