Survey Fraud Means Bad Decisions

Online research specialist MarketTools has conducted research which it says conclusively demonstrates the connection between fraudulent survey respondents and skewed survey data.

The report, titled 'What Impact Do Bad Respondents Have on Business Decisions?' is authored by Chief Methodologist Michael Conklin, who finds that organizations not using technology to validate survey respondents, double or triple their risk of making incorrect business decisions.

'Our research demonstrates, that problems in sample quality have a direct impact on research results and can dramatically increase the risk that poor data quality will translate into bad business decisions,' stated Conklin. 'By eliminating all sources of bad data through validation technology, researchers can mitigate the risks of using data from unreliable sample.'

In the summer, MarketTools conducted an attitudinal study on behalf of a consumer packaged goods company. The results are based on 622 interviews with consumers - 318 with respondents identified as duplicate or fraudulent and 304 with respondents certified as real, unique and engaged using the firm's own TrueSample process.

Results demonstrated that even a small proportion of 'bad respondents' caused risk to increase, although if a sample contains 10% bad respondents, the increased risk of making the wrong decision is relatively small. If a sample has 30% 'bad respondents', the risk of making a bad decision doubled, and at 40% 'bad respondents', the risk nearly tripled.

The research also found that increasing the sample size, a tactic some agencies use to counteract the effect of bad respondents, increases the risk of making a wrong decision instead of decreasing it.

MarketTools' research concludes that only a comprehensive approach to identifying and eliminating 'bad respondents' that employs de-duplication, and the elimination of 'speeders' and 'straight liners' will ensure high quality survey data.

The report can be downloaded through MarketTool's web site at: www.markettools.com/forms/resource_14.php .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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