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from the online-surveys dept

For years, people have been pointing out that any sort of online-based study wasn't likely to give very accurate results. People could more easily lie, "cheat", or run through the survey multiple times (or set up a bot to do it for them!). However, as it's getting increasingly difficult for survey takers to reach people on the phone, they're increasingly moving online. However, this is bothering some people, who point out the above problems as well as the most important fact that anyone taking the survey is now self-selected, instead of being random. They're also only representative of the population that has internet access. What's most interesting, though, is that some people really seem to get addicted to finding and filling out those surveys. Sometimes firms are willing to give out cash or prizes in exchange for your opinion, but sometimes people do it just for the fun of letting their opinion be heard - though, it sounds like people still "cheat" and try to give the answers the survey creators are hoping for. The reporter admits that she even ran over to Google to better answer some questions for a survey even though, as she says, the only thing riding on the answers was her ego.