The Impact of Repeated Lying on Survey Results

A Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the effects on study results of subjects completing a survey more than once. Three strategies subjects might use to do this - which is known as farming - are studied. Findings show that farming influences results and can cause both statistical hypothesis testing Type I (false positive) and Type II (false negative) errors in unpredictable ways. A literature review from one management sub-discipline (marketing) was undertaken to investigate how common problem farming might be. Results suggest that while the incentivised survey method which might encourage farming is popular and some approaches to data collection make it difficult to prevent farming altogether, it is unlikely to be commonplace as many research methods prevent it.