Four Barriers to Accuracy

There are four major barriers to accuracy when you use any method that relies on the verbal responses of people who have volunteered to participate in a survey, poll, interview or focus group.

The Barriers

2. The mental process of Repression is the tendency of people to accept a new message into their minds and then unconsciously erase the conscious memory of how the message got in. Like Faulty Memory, Repression may limit the accuracy of any research that relies on recall.

3. If enough people refuse to participate in a survey, the group of people who do participate may not be a representative sample. Psychologists and statisticians call this type of inaccuracy Nonresponse Bias. It is a serious and growing problem.

4. A substantial percentage (up to 50 percent) of people in any sample will give Dishonest Answers during a survey. There are various reasons for lying, including a desire to avoid seeming "politically incorrect," a desire to seem dignified or "classy," and a desire to sabotage the survey.

Why You Should Care About This

1. To caution you that some methods are non-intuitive: they have pitfalls and you should use outside experts.
2. To help you recognize that some methods are less accurate than they appear to be – even when executed by experts.
3. To explain why non-verbal methods – especially Classical Tracking – are more accurate than surveys.

Which Methods Are Affected?

Return from Barriers to Accuracy to Home