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Mundane realism describes the degree to which an experiment's setting and the experiences of its participants resemble the actual, everyday situations that researchers are attempting to study. A research design is considered high in mundane realism when its conditions mirror typical real-world environments, which inherently strengthens the study's external validity. For example, investigating consumer behavior by observing ordinary shoppers making their typical purchases inside a functioning grocery store would represent high mundane realism.

Mundane Realism

Robert Cialdini and his colleagues conducted a field experiment to investigate whether manipulating the message on a card left in hotel rooms would influence guests to reuse their towels. By comparing messages emphasizing environmental respect, hotel donations, or social norms (stating that most guests reuse towels), they found that the social norm message was the most effective. Because the study took place in a naturalistic setting, it achieved high external validity and mundane realism. However, it also serves as an example of prioritizing validities, as its statistical validity was more modest; this discrepancy does not invalidate the study, but rather highlights areas for improvement in future follow-up research.

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