Date:         Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:39:59 -0500
Reply-To:     Tiffola@aol.com
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Tiffany S.  Perkins" <Tiffola@aol.com>
Subject:      Sponsor Bias
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Has anyone heard of a rule of thumb regarding how much scores attributed to the sponsor of a survey should be "discounted?"

For example, if an insurance company does a survey of its clients via telephone interviews and identifies itself as the sponsor and at some point during the interview, asks the participants to state the 2 insurance companies they feel are #1 and #2, it is probable that the sponsor will get the highest #1 percentage.

Is there some objective way to compare % for all of the stores that are selected, while taking into account the bias toward the sponsor?

Any suggestions or references would be greatly appreicated.

Thank you.

Tiffany Perkins-Munn, Ph.D.