Genuine interest is essential when you are trying to study people. More than anything else, people want to talk about themselves, however they need someone to listen. Trust is equally important, for people are more apt to open up to someone they trust.
It may be a risk to become too involved, however. Becoming part of cultural drama may hinder the information gathering process. If you become emotionally attached, you may be less likely to portray your informants objectively.
To minimize these risks, an anthropologist needs to have a professional mindset. Assimilating with the culture for scientific purposes is good, but emotional attachment may not be. One could go so far as to say being a little ethnocentric may keep an anthropologist in an academic state of mind.
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