Satisficing & Social Desirability Bias

1. Satisficing & Social Desirability Bias
Justin Wheeler
VP, Product Innovation
Are In-Context Respondents More “Honest”?

2. Prior Research Demonstrates…
1
• Some exercises more accurate on mobile (e.g.
ranking)
• Mobile response quality at least as good as
desktop/laptop
• Mobile data quality superior to face-to-face
interviews (brand tracking)
• Mobile respondents not influenced by interviewer
• Mobile In-Context respondents exhibit better recall
of ads seen during shopping
• Mobile In-Context respondents more confident in
providing accurate answers about shopping trip

3. The Study
2
Satisficing
Social
Desirability Bias

4. Our Partner
3
Paul J. Lavrakas, PhD
Former Chief Methodologist for Nielsen
Former Professor: Ohio State University
Northwestern University
Voluntary research partner for uSamp

5. Hypothesis & Definitions
4
Mobile In-Context respondents are less likely to exhibit Satisficing
& Social Desirability Bias in survey responses, compared to online,
Out-of-Context respondents
Satisficing
A cognitive heuristic whereby respondents perform the least
amount of mental work to find a reasonable, “good enough”
answer.
Social Desirability Bias
The tendency of respondents to provide the answer they believe
the Interviewer wants to hear or that will make the respondent
“look better”.

6. The Study: A Dining Experience
5

7. Which survey setting is more reliable?
6
This In-contextvs.

8. Validation they were there to dine
7
Yes! Um….no!

9. We were right
8
Online respondents did
exhibit satisficing
and
social desirability
behaviors not exhibited by
Mobile-In-Context
respondents

10. Satisficing behaviors among online respondents
9
4.91
7.21
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Total Visits
Median # Total Visits to Restaurant
Mobile Online

11. Social desirability behaviors among online
respondents
10
Mobile Online
Median
number of
minutes
looking over
the menu
2.76 3.62
Mean number
of others who
dined with me
2.24 2.44

12. Hindsight degraded satisfaction metrics, which is
incongruous with eating there more often with more people
11
55
56
63
63
45
44
46
46
51
51
32
34
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Menu Variety
Types of Choices
Quality of Food
Quantity of Food
Noise Level
Value for Money
% Very Satisfied
Online Mobile
Mobile Online
Very/somewhat likely to
return to restaurant
89% 82%

13. Conclusion
12
In-Context = less satisficing
better access to memories
Hindsight can alter perceptions
Less social desirability bias

14. Postscript
13
Does this mean Online respondents are lying?
Online respondents are as honest
as they can be
[Mobile] In-Context respondents
have better access to the truth:
feelings, memories & experiences

15. Thank You