Eight focus groups were conducted in California in the spring of 1993. Groups were held in Bakersfield, Hayward, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose. These group sessions included in-depth questioning of cross sections of Californians. Participants for the focus groups were recruited by independent consumer research organizations in California. This qualitative research stage generated hypotheses later tested with the two telephone surveys.
Public Agenda developed the instruments (questionnaires) for the surveys and contracted Research International, Inc. to conduct sampling, interviewing and tabulation. The California survey was conducted with 832 California residents 18 years of age or older. The sampling error for the California survey is plus or minus three percent. The national survey was conducted with 502 residents of the continental United States 18 years of age or older and has a sampling error of plus or minus four percent. Samples for both the California and national surveys were drawn and interviewed using random digit dialing techniques, where every household-including those with unlisted numbers-in California and the continental United States had an equal probability of being dialed. In the California survey, respondents were given the option of being interviewed in English or Spanish (49 interviews were conducted in Spanish). The surveys were conducted at Research International's computer-assisted telephone interviewing facility in New York, between the first and ninth of August 1993.