Even more fundamental than this problem is the problem of bias in the research. How does a researcher isolate a situation to study as
“intercultural communication” in the first place? If you start by picking a conversation between an “American” and a “Chinese,” you
have started by presupposing that “Americans” and “Chinese” will be different from each other, that this difference will be significant,
and that this difference is the most important and defining aspect of that social situation. In most cases, none of these can be
assumed to be true and yet if the researcher begins by making this assumption and goes through the long, painstaking work of careful
analysis, human nature is likely to lead this researcher to find significant differences and to attribute those differences to his or her a
priori categories “American” and “Chinese” whether they really fit or not.