First mass observation project

In 1937 just before the start of the Second World War, two projects - one an anthropological study of the British people, the other a questionnaire-based study on a variety of subjects – came together under the title of Mass Observation, to create a pioneering anthology of everyday lives of ordinary people in the country. Established originally through the collaboration of three men, Charles Madge, Tom Harrisson and Humphrey Jennings, all aspects of life were covered by a national panel of diarists made up of people from all over the country, who maintained diaries or responded to open-eneded questionnaires sent to them by a core group of Mass Observers. A team of paid investigators went to public meetings of both formal and leisure activities, to record as much detail of behaviour and conversation as they could. The process was carried on throughout the war – influencing policy on tax, appropriate wartime posters and propaganda - into the early 1950s. In 1949, Mass Observation was registered as a limited company and gradually the activity became more focused on consumer behaviour rather than social issues eventually merging with J.Walter Thompson, an advertising agency. It was revived in 1981 as a charitable trust under the aegis of the University of Sussex, UK, which holds its archive and currently has a panel of 500 anonymous volunteers, who continue to respond to questionnaires three times a year.