Dear all:

I have realized I now have to up my skills in detecting people asking for money or time in 
ways that are not truly representing what I am being asked to do.  

Of course, when someone manages to get past the phone blocks we have for unsolicited 
advertisement, I've managed to shorten the amount of phone time it takes to detect 
whether or not it is a scam by asking for a donation is to ask if they will send it in the 
mail.  The instant I get the "well, this deal is only over the phone...." I know that I can 
politely end the conversation.

I never realized I would have to apply new strategies for a new phenomenon --- the 
solicitation to participate in focus groups.  I got a call from about lactation consultants 
participating in focus group discussions.  Immediately, I asked for the name of the person 
and the spelling of her name.  Then she asked me if I knew anything about focus groups 
and I told her that I had worked with social marketing programs in developing countries 
which used focus groups.  Then I asked her "Who is sponsoring the research?"  I'm glad I 
asked that question, because I immediately got the sputtering defensive, "Well, I'm not 
allowed to say".  Any research that has passed through a human ethics committee will 
not allow this type of secrecy.  Informed consent requires that you know the general gist 
of the research (without being leading as to the potential results that are being 
hypothesized) and who is conducting the research.  I politely declined to participate.

It dawned on me that many corporations are conducting research in a way that violates 
the basic human ethics principals that were drummed into me in graduate school about 
how to conduct research in an ethical manner.

Best, Susan Burger

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