When you run a study, you need to feel confident that the people taking part are real, suitable for your study, and giving thoughtful answers.
When you order participant responses from the Lyssna panel, we use several checks to help reduce fraudulent and poor-quality participation. We keep some details private so people cannot use that information to get around our checks, but here is an overview of how we approach participant quality.
We check participants before they take part
Before a participant joins a study, we carry out checks to help confirm that they appear to be a genuine person and are eligible to participate.
These checks can help us identify issues such as duplicate participation, conflicting information, or other activity that suggests someone may not be taking part honestly.
We look at the quality of their participation
Our checks do not stop once someone enters a study. We also look for signs that a participant is reading the instructions, completing the tasks properly, and providing useful responses.
For example, answers that are incomplete, inconsistent, or show very little engagement may raise a quality concern. We do not rely on one answer or one check alone. We consider the overall participation before taking action.
We take action when something does not look right
When our checks identify a possible problem, human reviewers will investigate participant responses and activity when something appears unusual or does not meet our standards. Depending on the issue, their response may be excluded, and action may be taken to prevent further poor-quality participation.
We also look for repeated problems over time. This helps us address patterns of behaviour, rather than treating every study as an isolated event.
We continue to improve our checks
The ways people attempt to misuse online research change over time. We regularly review what we are seeing and adjust our approach to respond to new problems.
We do not publish the exact details of our checks because doing so would make it easier for people to avoid them. However, the purpose of those checks is straightforward: to reduce dishonest and careless participation and help you collect more dependable results.
What you can do
No quality process can catch every problem, and good study design remains important. You can help improve the quality of your results by:
Setting clear participation requirements
Writing screening questions that do not reveal the preferred answer
Giving participants clear, concise instructions
Reviewing individual responses when something looks unusual
Reporting responses that you believe should be investigated
By combining our participant checks with a well-designed study, you give yourself the best chance of receiving thoughtful responses from people who are right for your research.