It should be straightforward to ask someone a simple factual question and receive a reliable answer. Questions like: “Do you have children?” “Do you attend church every week?” or “Do you own a bank account?” seem easy and clear-cut. However, the moment we begin drafting even these seemingly straightforward survey questions, we quickly uncover ambiguity…
Silly surveys, in all their forms, have long been a thorn in the side of authentic, truth-seeking research. When I see silly surveys, I roll my eyes and complain (to anyone who will listen) about the myriad ways in which they subtly damage the reputation and findings of good research. But here is an example…
There are three important characteristics of people who “satisfice” on surveys: They are less conscientious They are less agreeable They have different cognitive skills The first two refer to dimensions of the Big Five personality traits. Conscientious people are efficient and organized vs. extravagant or careless. Agreeable people are friendly and compassionate vs. critical and…
A survey we conducted for a client this year was just vetted by CNN and we were asked to provide all kinds of detailed information about what we did and how we did it so that our client could get news coverage for the survey they commissioned. This list of 16 questions that CNN will…
It was a long, arduous process (and still is), but it was worth it: Versta Research has been awarded certification for compliance to ISO 27001! This is one of the most widely recognized and internationally accepted information security standards. Certification puts Versta Research among a small handful of market research and insights firms that undergo…
Here are four types of “attention checks” to build into your questionnaires and analysis in order to assess whether respondents are fully engaged in answering your survey.
It might seem obvious that inattentive survey respondents should deleted from your data. Think again. Here’s why a “light touch” during data quality review is best.
A recent study shows that team translation is superior for accurate survey translation, but that less accurate translations will work just as well in terms of survey measurement.
Cell phone dialing is now essential for phone surveys, just as mobile-optimized surveys are essential for online surveys. A lot of market research continues to ignore this.
Versta Research has a new way of asking about race and ethnicity on surveys, and it is reducing respondent confusion and complaints by 80%.