Survey Bots and Best Practices to Avoid Them

What are bots? University of Kansas Research Engineer Lisa Hallberg writes:

The term “bot” in the context of online surveys refers to a script or program that is written to fill in the fields of a survey with fake values and then submit the survey, repeating the process many times, with the goal of receiving the promised compensation, also multiple times. (Hallberg, 2022)

The simplest way to prevent bot responses in your surveys is to remove the temptation for someone to script a bot in the first place. This is most easily accomplished by not providing compensation for anonymous surveys completed through the Public Survey Link. It's best to offer compensation only once you have verified the identity and contact information of your study participant and provided a unique survey link.

There are additional tips and tricks you can use to reduce the risk of survey bot responses. Click through for more from Hallberg's helpful guide to avoiding survey bots: Understanding survey bots and tools for data validation: Strategies for identifying possibly fraudulent responses.

Source:

Hallberg, L. (2022, July 27). Understanding survey bots and tools for data validation: Strategies for identifying possibly fraudulent responses [web log]. Retrieved September 9, 2022, from https://lifespan.ku.edu/online-surveys-and-data-collection-tools.