Research Tips

Selecting Research Participants

A key issue for any research project is determining which people (or households, businesses, etc.) to approach to get information. The usefulness of findings from any study depends on how well the characteristics of the people who participate in the research match the characteristics of the group to whom the findings are to be applied (e.g., all customers, or all consumers in a particular geographic area). If there is a mismatch, then the findings may be misleading.

For example, if a real-estate company, with offices throughout a large city, wanted to examine the real-estate buying habits of residents, it might decide to interview shoppers at one mall in the city. However, this approach would be likely to result in an unrepresentative group of respondents because people who live near the mall or spend a lot of time shopping would be disproportionately likely to participate, yet their real-estate buying patterns may differ significantly from those of other city residents.