A common misconception is that web panels need to be representative based on the demographic distribution of the population. However, it is the survey results that must be representative. What produces representative and thus reliable results is: Recruitment to the panel via probability sampling. Randomly stratified samples in each panel survey. Weighting on relevant variables. […]

Unfortunately, it needs to be constantly reminded that good surveys give a good picture of the citizen’s opinion. It’s just like anything else that the bad examples define an entire industry. Failures in the form of unscientific investigations lead to a distrust of the scientifically based, as de Novus does. This is a negative spiral […]