It is the job of the focus group moderator to establish dominance over the group while encouraging all of the participants to speak up and share.

Here is an example of an introduction I use as a focus group moderator:

The rule in this group is that everybody participates and nobody dominates. So if you’re the kind of person who always speaks up right away, that’s great – I like it when people aren’t afraid to speak up – but you need to give everyone else a chance to talk. My goal is to have a balanced discussion so I’m going to make sure the quiet people speak up and the talkative people back off a little. Please don’t take this personally as my job is to move the discussion along and get everybody’s opinion.

This kind of introduction is very effective with professional groups – like doctors – because it establishes the focus group moderator as an expert and sets the stage for intervention if a respondent tries to dominate. A firm hand from the beginning sets the stage for a great focus group.

One answer comes from the field of embodied cognition. A study described in the Journal of Psychological Science indicates that subjects who were made to feel socially excluded estimated the temperature in the room to be an average 5 degrees lower than control subjects in the same room.

The feeling of social coldness increases anxiety and defensiveness, which make the moderator’s job of achieving insight that much more difficult.

A moderator should always greet respondents warmly and encourage them to be open and unafraid in their responses. In psychology, this is called unconditional positive regard. Once this rapport and acceptance is established, it is actually easier to control group dynamics. A warm but firm leader inspires trust and sharing.