A research article the Winter 2009 issue of Public Opinion Quarterly provided some useful comparisons of data quality between phone surveys and various types of online surveys. The findings are based on an experiment that fielded identical questionnaires via three survey modes, and, not surprisingly, there are strengths and weaknesses to each type of survey.…
As an industry driven by data and information, market research and public opinion polling has seen dramatic changes in the last ten years and will no doubt change quickly and in big ways during the next ten. Looking back, here are what we consider to be the five biggest changes that shaped current challenges faced…
For some reason I’m always a little surprised that people tell the truth on surveys. I like to think of my “healthy skepticism” as a professional asset, because it forces us to check and double check, corroborate and triangulate. Before we commit to the findings of a research effort, we need to feel 100% sure…
Bad pollsters give the market research industry a bad name, so it is encouraging when smart people figure out clever ways of ratting them out. What is a bad pollster? One who makes up data to support an agenda, or who asks biased questions to get preferred answers. The only good reason for doing research…
Market researchers complain a lot when they get data back from surveys and see that people have been “speeding” through their surveys or that people are not giving thoughtful responses. But the problem is rarely “bad respondents” – instead the problem is lazy researchers. When people discover that the survey they just agreed to take…