Is our trust in survey results rational, or breaking the ethics in the social research

Abstract

Often it is impossible for the employer to verify the received data as well as the quality of the investigation from the perspective of scientific misconduct. In such cases, the only way is to rely on the business integrity of company managers and executives. The article describes the reverse situation, when the employer had an access to a great part of the field documentation. The survey was conducted in August, 2013 by one of the leading companies in the area of marketing research. Therefore the author analyses the completed questionnaires, interviewer’s routes, sample description, allocation of addresses for interviewers and methodological report made by the company. This leads to the issue of the reliability of data and such types of scientific misconduct as fabrication and falsification. As a result, the author establishes the consistency of only 74% of data. Moreover, two cases of falsification have been disclosed. The author concludes that only 21% of interviewer’s routs comply with the requirements.