Note: In September 2024, the Center for Social Science Innovation replaced the Public Policy Center and its subsidiary unit the Iowa Social Science Research Center.
Alison Bianchi, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, is investigating the lack of male participation in social science experiments during this summer’s Fellowship for Qualitative Research at the Public Policy Center. Her project, titled “Where Have All the Subjects Gone?: A Focus Group Analysis of Experimental Research Participation,” ultimately aims to inform strategies that could help encourage engagement in scientific studies across disciplines.
Growing Concerns in Social Psychological Research Participation
Bianchi’s project found its footing in her own experiences of recruiting participants for her social psychological experiments. Her position as director of the Center for the Study of Group Processes gave her a front row seat to a declining trend in participation, specifically from white and Black men, within experimental work.
To assess whether this was a regional or more widespread issue, Bianchi sent an informal email to colleagues from the field across the country to gauge other’s challenges and successes with recruitment.
The responses revealed that Bianchi’s concerns about participation were not restricted to her own experiences in Iowa—they appeared to be impacting studies nationwide. “I asked pretty straightforwardly, how are you getting the guys to come to the lab?” said Bianchi. “The answer was, they weren’t.”
From Experiments to Focus Groups: Exploring New Methods
As a structural social psychologist, most of Bianchi’s research has been quantitative. However, due to the nature of the issue she intends to address, she feels a qualitative approach is best suited to her study.
“The more I dug into the research that’s been done on this subject, the more I realized that there’s a huge void about what’s actually happening,” Bianchi expressed. “No one really knows what’s there, and qualitative methodology is the best way for scoping out that which is unknown."
Bianchi is utilizing her time at the Public Policy Center to set the groundwork for a focus group study that will explore the perspectives of white and Black men to hopefully uncover the reasons behind the lack of engagement from those demographics.
“I’m really interested in doing focus groups of students to get their understanding and opinions about social scientific research and, really, social science in general,” Bianchi explained. “Over time I think this project might evolve into a kind of sociological understanding of the de-legitimization of science and the mistrust people have for the field.”
The research services team at the Public Policy Center are trained in focus group work and offer a wide selection of focus group services, ranging from recruiting participants to analyzing and reporting on qualitative results. As she continues to consider and plan her research design, Bianchi has taken the opportunity to receive input from those at the center who are well-versed in the methodology.
The summer program's structure, Bianchi notes, has also given her a unique opportunity to re-familiarize herself with qualitative approaches during the development of her project. “This isn’t just me running another experiment,” Bianchi emphasized. “This is me really retraining the way I think and what I do. That takes time and space and thought, and the Public Policy Center has given me that.”
By the end of the five-week program, Bianchi intends to have a firm grasp of her focus group methodology and a basic structure for her open-ended questions completed. Looking forward, Bianchi also hopes to submit survey items to the Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences organization funded by the National Science Foundation, with the goal of increasing the scope and scale of her project to encompass a national sample of respondents.
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