Comments on: Market Research and “Ethical Treatment of Human Subjects” http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/2010/01/26/market-research-and-ethical-treatment-of-human-subjects/ Market Research Insights for Technology Companies Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:26:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Diane Hagglund http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/2010/01/26/market-research-and-ethical-treatment-of-human-subjects/comment-page-1/#comment-304 Diane Hagglund Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:50:10 +0000 http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/?p=383#comment-304 Great point Elinor. Dimensional Research primarily does market research with technology professionals - an area where gender is not a relevant confounding variable. I'll add an exception to #3 in cases where gender info does genuinely add value. Great point Elinor. Dimensional Research primarily does market research with technology professionals – an area where gender is not a relevant confounding variable. I’ll add an exception to #3 in cases where gender info does genuinely add value.

]]> By: Elinor Halford http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/2010/01/26/market-research-and-ethical-treatment-of-human-subjects/comment-page-1/#comment-303 Elinor Halford Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:09:11 +0000 http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/?p=383#comment-303 With regards to point 3, I'm guessing a lot of the time gender may not matter but is needed for quota purposes to ensure a representative sample, which surely should be a key concern for anyone doing research? A basic concept of quantitative research is something called a 'confounding variable' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding) - if you don't know what proportion of respondents were e.g. female, you won't have any idea whether you can trust your data to be representative of the customer base or whether it's biased. Otherwise, I completely agree with you Diane. With regards to point 3, I’m guessing a lot of the time gender may not matter but is needed for quota purposes to ensure a representative sample, which surely should be a key concern for anyone doing research? A basic concept of quantitative research is something called a ‘confounding variable’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding) – if you don’t know what proportion of respondents were e.g. female, you won’t have any idea whether you can trust your data to be representative of the customer base or whether it’s biased.

Otherwise, I completely agree with you Diane.

]]> By: Sandy http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/2010/01/26/market-research-and-ethical-treatment-of-human-subjects/comment-page-1/#comment-291 Sandy Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:31:06 +0000 http://www.dimensionalresearch.com/blog/?p=383#comment-291 Leave it to the professionals! Leave it to the professionals!

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