ABSTRACT
Imagine for a moment that you are a market-research professional interested in understanding women’s attitudes toward home pregnancy tests. You want to understand current usage patterns and determine which features are most important. As a first step, you decide to conduct focus groups. You recruit six women through telephone interviews and invite them to attend a discussion on pregnancy-related matters. As an ethical researcher, you inform the women accurately in advance what the discussion will be about and they freely sign consent forms. You explain that anything they say will be confidential and assure them of their anonymity. You also make clear that nothing will be sold to them during the course of the research and make clear that they are free to leave at any time. During the discussion, you ask them to imagine what they would do if they believed they might be pregnant. If they mention a home pregnancy test, you ask them to explain the reasoning behind that choice. You then introduce your brand and ask them to rate their feelings for it. At the end of the session, you feel pleased. You feel you have effectively met your research objectives while protecting the rights and interests of the respondent in the process. This chapter argues that while you were well intentioned, it is quite likely that you inadvertently failed to follow the basic research dictum, “Do no harm.”
