[Informatics] Catching Survey Liars

[Mark]

Hi, survey makers

One of the big problems with surveys is how many people lie to either sound
either more impressive or less repulsive.

Teenagers were surveyed about their drug-taking habits, and researchers
became suspicious about how many young folk said they took every drug
listed on the survey.

So 'Derbisol' was invented, a fake* drug, and inserted into the list of
drugs on surveys
.
After Derbisol was added to the list of possible drugs in surveys,
a significant proportion of teenagers admitted to taking Derbisol.

So, surveys often need self-validation questions to weed out the fakers.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/05/22/313166161/mischievous-responders-confound-research-on-teens

http://io9.gizmodo.com/have-you-ever-gotten-high-on-derbisol-1520473039?IR=T

Thanks to the QI elves and their 'No Such Thing as a Fish' podcast
<http://qi.com/podcast/> (episode 11) for this juicy tip.

* A drug with this name *does* exist but is only is sold in Korea to treat
skin ailments.
The survey was conducted in Texas.

-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com

Powered by *Derbisol.*
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