Occupational Bias in Market Research Surveys

• While survey respondents may work for a company involved in a “biased” industry, the respondents actual job might have anything to do with the particular industry. For example, a person might work as an accountant, secretary, or IT professional in a marketing firm. While the respondent “works” in a restricted industry, they are not likely to be biased because of their lack of involvement in marketing activities.


• Occupational questions are easy to identify as filters—panelists might lie about their occupation in order to qualify for the study. As a result, survey responses may still be affected by occupational bias thus introducing lurking variables.


• Occupations and industries with strong bias may inadvertently be left out of the screener.


• Savvy panelists in restricted sectors might have valuable insights to add to the study.

• Market researches could require all respondents to identify their industry and profession without screening out panelists with professions in areas suspected to cause occupational bias. Once the survey has been closed, researchers could compare responses to determine whether or not a bias actually exists.


• Respondents could be required to identify their industry and profession. Only panelists in biased industries would then be screened out. Screening in this way should reduce dishonest responses.


• Researchers could identify professions/industries implicitly lacking occupational bias and screen out respondents from all other occupations.


• Questions could screen out occupations instead of industries.