Deception used in paid surveys
By maezee
@maezee (41985)
United States
March 23, 2016 4:04pm CST
Whoa! I have never had this happen. I learned a little bit about deception in research and it is legit and "ethical" (at least according to APA guidelines) but is essentially the survey creator lying during the duration of the study and then usually at the end "debriefing" the client or surveytaker of the deception.
I do a lot of online surveys for cash and I ran across this one wthat acted as a screener for an online blog focus group. It said I qualified! And then wanted some more questions answered... i was excited because I literally never qualify for the big-money focus groups.
Lo and behold - the end of the survey comes and I am debriefed that there is no focus group. Got all excited for nothing! Well, at least I made 75 cents or whatever it was.
Have you ever seen deception used in a paid survey? Do you find this ethical or unethical? Any other recent strange paid survey situations? Do tell!
4 people like this
5 responses
@Ladypeace (2028)
• Singapore
24 Mar 16
I had done surveys that paid accordingly and some that fail to after completion. Luckily the latter category happens very seldom. I avoid surveys from those companies totally. I haven't came across a situation like yours, it's unethical for sure.
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
23 Mar 16
I have done some surveys that ripped me off by no completion code.






