Interviews, whether they are structured or unstructured, are social interactions and therefore influence the interviews answers

In urn - structured interviews, there is a high sense of Artificiality, two parties are involved, in which one takes the initiative  and asks the questions, under these artificial conditions, it is doubtful whether truthful answers can be obtained. However in a structured interview, there is more control over the fine nature of the interaction. This does not show a social interaction in interviews.

A Cultural gab may also mean that interviews can not tell when they are being lied to. Margaret Mead (1943) research on adolescents in Samoa in the western pacific has been criticized on the grounds that Mead, who couldn't speak the language, was unable to spot that the girls she interviewed had deliberately misled her. Moreover this would show that, for interviews to be valid - a cultural bond is required to prevent gathering misleading responses due to language difficulties.

There are few ethical issues with interviews, However, as it is a social interaction the interviewee may feel under some pressure to answer. To prevent this, the interviewer should gain full consent from the interviewee and make it clear that they have the right not to answer any questions that they do not wish too (as with all research.

With all these social influence issues, some researchers use particular techniques to help overcome them. When there is a chance of interviewer bias, the interviewer will ask the questions quickly, giving the interviewee less time to think. Another Researcher used aggression, disbelief and ‘playing dumb’ as ways of fooling the interviewee to extract information. A way of getting passed cultural differences is making sure the interviewer and interviewee are ethnically and language matched .

In conclusion, it can be seen that to a certain extent, a social interaction will affect that validity of the interview, However, on the other hand many researchers have developed techniques to overcoming this problem.