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USA Today Snapshot: FAIL

This could also have been titled "When Surveys Go Bad."

Surveys are one of the most popular research tools in a public relations executive's quiver. Too often though surveys are abused, twisted and the methodology is tortured until it screams in pursuit of a compelling headline. Too many surveys don't use random sampling, or extrapolate from too small a sample size.

One of the most coveted placements for research for coverage is the USA Today "Snapshots" section. The editors there have high standards and typically require solid methodology, and an interesting angle.

Which is why I am scratching my head over today's (January 18, 2011) snapshot in USA Today's LIFE section.

Take a minute, click here and then on the LIFT tab and see if you can figure out what is wrong with the survey...

What struck me is the question: "Which utility or communication service is most important" (emphasis mine).

When you look at the results, they total 332%. Not 100%. You can't have more than one MOST important thing. That's the very definition of "most important." There should have been a forced ranking, or consumers should have been only able to choose one option.

Now don't get me wrong, I could have a lot of fun and see some interesting insight from the data. More than 1 in 3 Americans (More than 70 million over 18) would chose the Internet over water, heat or electricity (would they really)?

Cells phones are valued as much as the Internet.

The only way I can make this infographic make sense is if the question was "Do you agree with the following statement: X is the most important utility.") Where people could answer yes to more than one question.

But that is still a misuse of "most."

Posted by Mark McClennan on January 18, 2011 at 12:25 PM