Research Tips

Poor Reliability Can Mask Research Results

Why is reliability important? Because if measures are unreliable, there may appear to be no relationship between variables when actually there is. For example, any organization that runs advertisements is likely to be interested in knowing whether exposure to those advertisements leads to improved attitudes toward the advertised brand. There are many different ways to measure both advertising exposure and brand attitudes, but if the method selected to measure either of these variables is unreliable, then advertising exposure might appear to have no effect on brand attitudes even if, in reality, it does.