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This paper highlights and discusses the methodological challenge of combining control and validity in social robotics research. Proactive, future-oriented studies that explore novel technologies and interactions are usually conducted in specially constructed environments and involve completing researcher-defined tasks. While researchers’ control over environments and tasks allows for investigating human-robot interaction phenomena that do not (yet) exist in real-life settings, it may also potentially undermine the validity of the studies. The paper discusses combining control and validity in relation to existing social robotics research and identifies key topics for further methodological developments. The paper argues that detailed and explicit representations of study contexts are crucial to ensure creating consistent study environments. It is also argued that there is a need for analytical tools supporting an understanding of how study participants frame technologies and tasks within particular study contexts.