Inventor of the focus group remembered
At a recent staff meeting, it was mentioned that the inventor of the focus group had died. The general reaction to this news from the staff was little more than, “Oh, that’s interesting.”
Frankly, it hadn’t occurred to us that the concept of the focus group was invented, and certainly not that it was the creation of one person. We did what any curious researchers would do: We started researching.
What we discovered was that the person who invented the focus group was Robert K. Merton. Many of you may have heard of Dr. Merton in one of your sociology classes. If not, you probably have heard of the terms, “self-fulfilling prophecy” and “role model.” Dr. Merton coined these and many other phrases.
The focus group was first used in 1941 when Merton was working on a project for the broadcasting industry. The research involved typical radio listeners who were instructed to press buttons about various programs. After these sessions, Merton selected participants to remain and discuss the shows in more detail, or “focus” on why they liked one show and not another. Thus, the focus group was born.
Dr. Merton died in February 2003 at the age of 92. ‡
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