How to Decide Whether to Believe Online Consumer Surveys

A lot can happen between gathering data and reporting on it, and there are many ways to present statistics in a misleading way. Make sure the surveys you read are properly conducted and reported before taking them to heart.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet Access

1. Find out who or what paid for the survey, if anyone did. If the survey has been funded or sponsored by a particular company or manufacturer, the survey may be biased.

2. Make sure the entity that conducted the survey is a trustworthy one, such as a respected consumer advocate group or neutral online publication.

3. Look for signs of thorough statistical analysis such as margin of error and standard deviation.

4. Make sure the survey was conducted over a broad spectrum of the population, or one that is representative of the relevant consumer type (that is, you).

5. Make sure the survey had a reasonably large number of respondents.

6. Pay close attention to the wording of the report. Make sure you know exactly what is being claimed and how it is being supported.

7. If possible, find out exactly what was asked on the survey and see that the options were presented objectively.

Tips & Warnings

• Web consumer surveys are often conducted by people who volunteer their responses. This can skew the results toward people who are most likely to submit information, which means that the results may very well be different than what a random sampling of users would produce. People who have had especially bad or good experiences are much more likely to participate in voluntary ratings.