The popular War Stories column, which presents humorous tales of life in the research trenches, has historically been compiled by Art Shulman, president of Shulman Research in Van Nuys, Calif. Each month in our e-newsletters we feature anecdotes from past War Stories columns and over time, we have received a handful of submissions from our e-newsletter readers who want to share their own outlandish or otherwise entertaining experiences of research gone just-slightly awry. Submit your own War Story today!
Murray Simon says that as a health care marketing researcher, he sometimes finds himself in the position of having to explain to his clients something technical that was said during a focus group or individual interview. This particular task was made rather difficult one night during a focus group with surgeons on the subject of prostate cancer.
One of the respondents was Hispanic and although he was very articulate, he spoke with a heavy accent and used Spanish colloquialisms quite freely. At one point he made the statement, “When you cut off their cojones, they are not too happy about it.”
During the debrief after the group, one of Simon’s clients, a young woman, asked if he would explain the technical medical term used by one of the doctors … and here she checked her notes: carrones or colonies.
Kathleen L. DeWitt reports that while screening for respondents on a study involving baking products, she came across an elderly woman who was offended by DeWitt asking to speak with the “senile head of the household.”