Getting closer to the truth

There can be big discrepancies between what people tell us in surveys and the truth. Due to various motivational factors, because respondents tend to over and under claim certain answers. Kantar has found that respondents are more likely to say they do socially desirable activities (like vote, recycle or buy organic food) and less likely to say they do socially undesirable activities (like smoking, watching reality TV or eating fast food). However, responding dishonestly is not necessarily conscious behaviour.
Unfortunately, there is one motivation for dishonesty that is more conscious. Some respondents do lie outright if they think saying 'yes' or 'no' to something will help them qualify to take part in the survey or get them through the survey faster. These respondents have what is called a 'survey mindset'. The other major motivation occurs when respondents simply lose concentration due to a lengthy survey. These respondents will start randomly clicking as a result of their laziness or boredom. Over the past few years, Kantar has conducted an extensive amount of research to explore and understand why people don’t always tell the truth in surveys. They have slowly been working out how to encourage more truthful responses from our respondents. In this guide, they share their learnings of how to get closer to the truth when conducting market research.