Many Surveys, About One In Five, May Contain Fraudulent Data (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: How often do people conducting surveys simply fabricate some or all of the data? Several high-profile cases of fraud over the past few years have shone a spotlight on that question, but the full scope of the problem has remained unknown. [Tuesday], at a meeting in Washington, D.C., a pair of well-known researchers presented a statistical test for detecting fabricated data in survey answers. When they applied it to more than 1000 public data sets from international surveys, a worrying picture emerged: About one in five of the surveys failed, indicating a high likelihood of fabricated data.

Comments

May not be fraud - simply incompetence.

[gurps_npc]

There are a lot of ways you can screw with a study. For example, you get dramatically different answers by rephrasing the question.

If you ask: "Do you believe that mothers should be able to legally murder their babies within 2 months of the creation of life?" you get a very different answer than if you ask "Do you believe that women should have the legal right to abortion when the fetus can be demonstrated to show no brain activity more significant than that of a snail."

This might be intentional, or simple unconscious bias.

Re:only 1 in 5 fraudulent?

[penguinoid]

The rest are merely intentionally misleading. You can get just about any answer you want, without making up data, by carefully selecting your questions and your survey population.