Fairness Foundation uses Focaldata AI to unpack difficult concepts
The Fairness Foundation is a charitable think tank working to change the debate around fairness in the UK. They were interested in understanding public views and awareness of the impacts of wealth inequality on the UK’s economy, society and political system.
Challenge
The Fairness Foundation set out on a project to unpack public views and awareness of the impacts of wealth inequality in the UK. In the first phase of work, they commissioned a representative poll. While the poll produced notable findings – like the links individuals made between inequality and social impacts like crime and poor mental health - the findings were unidimensional. Specifically, the poll did not provide enough insight into how people thought about inequality, or why they held the views they did. The Fairness Foundation needed a different lens on the issue to unpack the more nuanced and sometimes contradictory views that the public have around wealth inequality.
Solution
Using our depth qual tool Focaldata AI, Will, Chief Executive at the Fairness Foundation, carried out 50 one-on-one interviews with a cross-sectional sample of Britons. The interviews were completed within an hour. Then, he used our query tool to dynamically interrogate the results, quickly navigating between different transcripts to pick out key quotes to include in the final report.
Results
The qualitative findings provided a rich counterbalance to the quantitative results. They reinforced the polling’s findings that there are high levels of public concern about wealth inequality, but also qualified them by uncovering a richer understanding of the impacts of wealth inequality than had been picked up in the polling. For example, several individuals emphasised the generational effects of wealth inequality, and how they can lead to inter-generational tensions. The survey had not asked about this dimension of inequality, and so had no data around it. The interviews also uncovered unprompted concerns about the negative impacts of wealth inequality on economic growth and on politics. The qualitative exercise was therefore critical in exploring a broader range of views around inequality in a way that did not merely reflect the original scope - and inclusion biases - of the quantitative survey.
Focaldata AI is a groundbreaking tool that comes into its own when you need more insights than can be provided purely by quantitative data from polling, but don’t have the time or budget to organise traditional focus groups. It provides rapid and robust qualitative data in a very user-friendly format that can be interrogated and acted upon incredibly quickly.
Will Snell, Chief Executive, Fairness Foundation
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