NEWS25 June 2013

Research shows gamification produces valid data

Features UK

UK — Soft gamification techniques can produce more valid data than a standard survey according to a study from MMR Research Worldwide.

Res_4009995_MMR_grab

The research company claimed that soft gamification provided a “directional improvement” in terms of data validity allowing respondents to better reflect and access what they would do in reality.

With Oxford Brookes University student Hollie Kernohan, MMR looked at the consumer behaviour surrounding an average weekly grocery shop using standard questions and gamified question wording in an online survey.

In a gamified condition, 79% of respondents were more likely to accurately predict their spend compared with 63% in the standard survey.

In addition, the application of soft gamification saw the average number of words given in participants’ responses increases by almost ten from 5.68 to 13.77.

MMR said that although the industry had been using gamification, the validity of responses had never been fully investigated until the research.

MMR innovations director Pippa Bailey added: “Our results offer a comforting reassurance not only that gamification is doing what the industry expects in bolstering levels of engagement and enriching data, but also that the adaption of a standard survey using soft gamification techniques can provide data which is at least directionally more valid than standard surveys.”

Simon Miller

Features UK

@RESEARCH LIVE

5 Comments

NickD

11 years ago

Perhaps their PR releases could do with a bit of reworking; statements like "almost ten from 5.68 to 13.77." really don't do them any favours, regardless of the robustness of the data...

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Deb Sleep

11 years ago

Interesting angle to look at the accuracy of predicting spend. When Jon Puleston at GMI and I experimented with engagement and gamification techniques we demonstrated similar benefits in terms of increased word count and also proved that an engaged respondent will happily spend longer doing a survey, give you more granular and insightful data and happily come back to do more in the future. What's not to like about that !

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Pippa Bailey

11 years ago

Fair point about the figures - in the original draft they were in a table but with various revisions they got pulled into the body of text and yes they should have been rounded up.

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Mike Thompson

11 years ago

I think that the increase in data content is very interesting. Did you carry this research out online with a 'proper' sample rather than an access panel. With access panelists conducting at leat 30 surveys a week they are likely to be more in need of some light relief than real respondents. It would interesting to know ifr you get the same effect with proper sampling.

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Rob Stevens

11 years ago

Mike, that is a very interesting claim, I've had a search adn can't find a ref, do you have a source?

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