The Assorted Pleasures of Focus Groups and M&Ms

In other words, 40 percent of the participants didn’t provide accurate answers. Did they lie? Did they not want others knowing they were members? Did they think it was no one’s business? Or did they just forget?

The answers to those questions really aren’t relevant. The most important thing we can derive from the situation is that people don’t always act as they say. Another example is the increasing inaccuracy of exit polls during recent elections. Many participants simply are presenting false answers to the pollsters.