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“Sit somebody down in the room and ask them to name their favorite detergent. And who knows what they're going to come up with. Do the same thing, and there's a picture of the ocean in the room on the wall. And they're now significantly more likely to say Tide. Tide's my favorite detergent.
“Sit somebody down in the room and ask them to name their favorite detergent. And who knows what they're going to come up with. Do the same thing, and there's a picture of the ocean in the room on the wall. And they're now significantly more likely to say Tide. Tide's my favorite detergent.
And ask them why. And they will give you some rational explanation about what Tide does to their strawberry stains on their shirts.”
And ask them why. And they will give you some rational explanation about what Tide does to their strawberry stains on their shirts.”
Ever taken a survey and thought, Wait… was I just tricked into answering that differently? Well, now it’s your turn to be the mastermind!
Your challenge: Conduct an experiment to investigate the effects of response bias in surveys. You get to choose the topic, but your experiment must be designed to answer at least one of these big questions:
📢 Can the wording of a question create response bias?
🎭 Does the interviewer’s characteristics (like age, gender, or tone) influence responses?
🔒 Does anonymity change how people answer sensitive questions?
📜 Does giving extra information before the question change responses?
📊 Can changing the order or format of answer choices influence responses?
👀 Does showing people others’ answers affect how they respond?
Think of a topic that sparks curiosity, design an experiment to test it, and then analyze the results to reveal the hidden biases behind survey responses!
Get ready to play with psychology, uncover hidden biases, and maybe even change the way you see surveys forever!
How to Set Up Your Experiment
How to Set Up Your Experiment
✅ Pick a partner or work by yourself
✅ Pick Your Focus: Decide which of the above questions you want to investigate.
✅ Keep It Simple: Write a basic, clear survey question. Then create two versions—one that’s unbiased and one that’s designed to introduce bias in a subtle way.
✅ Gather Data: This is an experiment, so you don’t need a random sample of subjects. However, you must randomly assign which version of the survey each person gets.
✅ Analyze Results: Compare responses to see if your biased version actually influenced answers.
✅ Run a Simulation: Just like we did with Joy Milne and Parkinson’s, simulate what results would look like if bias had no effect. Was the difference in your survey responses actually significant, or could it have happened by chance? You can use stapplet to do this.
✅ Create a Slideshow: Share your findings in a presentation. You can use this template to organize your work.
✅ Paste a link to your presentation here.
Why This Matters
Why This Matters
Companies, politicians, and media organizations all use surveys to shape opinions and influence decisions. By the end of this project, you'll see just how easy it is to sway results—and you’ll never look at survey data the same way again!
Would You Eat This?
The Hidden Power of One WordWould You Eat This?
A picture of a pizza is shown to a student and then the student is randomly assigned to answer one of two questions.
Question 1: Would you eat this pizza?
Question 2: Would you eat this vegan pizza?
Does inserting the word “vegan” into this question while showing the exact same picture bias the results?
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