DarkBronzePlant

So someone from the Boulder Atheists was contacted, asking for willing participants in a focus group for "non-believers." At this point, I don't know who is sponsoring it. My first thought was that maybe some church was trying to round up a group of non-believers in one room and trying to convert them (in the idiotic words of W, "Being 'em on!" ) My second thought was that we'd all be rounded up into a room and gassed. But then, they are offering $100 to participants, which would come in pretty handy these days, so I thought I would chance it.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Farren

What does a non-believers focus group do? Figure out better things to focus on than god?

Or eye exercises for astygmatic non-believers?

AspenMama

Hey I want to come! This should be in SL&S.

DarkBronzePlant

I mentioned to the person from the focus center that I had a bunch of friends who might be interested. But I was actually filling the last spot they had open...

Actually, I think it would've been more fun had some more infidels been present.

Although the moderator wasn't allowed to tell us who was sponsoring the focus group, we're all guessing that it was the American Atheists, trying to brainstorm ideas of how to get non-active atheists involved in the organization.

Bill Snedden

Getting paid because you don't believe in god?



...wait for it....



Thank you, god!

Uh oh...

Rusting Car Bumper

Please tell us what happened and what they were doing.

DC

Respectable Joe

Dark,

When is it, do you know? I don't check in as often as I should and would like to know when to check back for your report!

Thanks.

Respectable J.

DarkBronzePlant

It was last evening.

Realizing that not everyone knows what a focus group is, I'll quickly explain:

It's basically when a company is looking to launch some kind of marketing campaign, they need to actually hear from real-life examples of the types of people they will be targeting in the campaign. Typically, the company would be at the stage where they know who their target market it is, and has done a bunch of qualitative research already. They might already have some ideas (i.e. different concepts for different types of advertisements) that they now want to put in front of some real people in their target audience to see how they fly.

The focus group itself, then, consists of usually 8 - 10 people in a room for an hour or two. The group is lead by a moderator who has been hired by the company. It's like the oft-portrayed room with a big table that everyone sits around, and a one-way mirror form behind which the marketing people observe the "subjects" (Jack-n-the-Box had a great commercial portraying a focus group.) The moderator then asks open-ended questions and steers to group to discuss certain topics.

So anyhow, it was based around 1. what it means to be an atheists, and 2. what motivates people like us to join national affinity groups. Hence our supposition that it was the American Atheists that had set up to focus group.

So DigitalChicken, I can't really say what they are doing at this point (if indeed it was AA.) In fact, they would still be trying to figure it out. But if our guess is correct, then they are at least attempting to increase their membership.

Rusting Car Bumper

Fascinating.

Well, the can increase their membership by means of less vitriol and more community based involvement. One doesn't need a focus group to figure that out.

DC

ohwilleke

Often focus groups are commissioned not to find something out, but because the person who asks for it has a good idea what the focus group is going to say, and needs it to have a neutral "expert" persuade a bunch of people at the top of an organization who are out of touch with the grass roots that changes are needed.

A focus group makes an idea come across like a rational process, instead of political lobbying, which would probably work well in an atheist group.

Anyway, are you sworn to secrecy, or can you tell us what the focus group felt about the issues?