So what did we do? 

The bulk of our research was to see what exactly people know about caffeine.  We wanted to see what types of misconceptions an average person might have about consumables that contain caffeine and if they consider it a drug. Misconceptions are made because people are not properly taught about caffeine and learn from their peers or the media. 


We felt that, to get a variety of results, our interview pool should include a variety of genders, ages, and educations. So we set up our interview outside, on the campus of Michigan State University, not far from a local Starbucks and associated food court. As pedestrians walked by we politely asked them to sit down and talk with us about our project. We acquired about a dozen random interviewees. We asked them the questions that you see listed below. 

We asked them the following questions: 

1. On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being you know nothing and 5 being you know just about everything, how much do you know about caffeine? 
   
   
2. Do you drink caffeinated beverages? If yes: what caffeinated beverages do you drink and how often do you drink them?
   
   
3. How would you explain what caffeine is to someone that doesn't know?
   
   
4. Do you think of caffeine to be a drug? Why or why not?
   
   
5. Put these items in order from least caffeine to most caffeine. (See items pictured here to the right.)
   
   
6. What other non-beverage products contain caffeine?
   
   
7. Where/how did you learn what you know about caffeine?

Click here to read our results