Weighting - Eliminating Sample Bias

At its simplest form, weighting and balancing allows you to adjust the data to account for sample bias. Sample bias occurs when your survey data (from your sample) does not accurately represent your target audience. Lets say, for example, you are in the business of selling mens clothing. You also know that males form 80% of your customer base and purchasing decision. If you field a survey, and your survey response has 50% male and 50% female - you have sample bias. The data is leaning towards females, who constitute 50% of the survey data, but only constitute 20% of your customer base.

Once, you've determined that you need to adjust for sample biasing, you need to weight the responses and adjust the responses so this sample bias is eliminated.

Weighting and Balancing allows you to accomplish this.

To set up weighting,

Go to: My Surveys (Select Survey) » Analytics

Select the Weighting option from the Manage Data dropdown.

Under Weighting and Balancing, click on the Add Question button to select a question to apply weights to.

Apply proportions and save.

You can choose from:

Balanced Proportions: Default option to balance using percentage.

Balanced Weight: You can balance using absoluted weights.

Click on Add New Variable and select the question you wish to add as a variable.

Update weights and save.

To import weight, click on the ellipsis icon on the right and select Import Weights from the options.

Download the template from the popup, provide weights and upload it back to the system.

Download the Excel Report and view the data adjusted for weights. The system produces an excel spreadsheet with the original data and the weighted data. This allows you to visually see the adjustments that have been made to eliminate the sample bias.

Once you have set up weighting, go to Analytics.

Click on the settings icon for the Dashboard

Under Settings, switch on the Weighting & Balancing toggle and select the question to use for weighting.

Weighting will be applied on the dashboard and you can see the weighting icon as acitve in blue color. You can click to disable it for particular questions.

For Weighting and Balancing you need to use Multiple Choice Single Select (Radio Button) Question Type. Multiple Select (Check Box) type questions or Matrix Questions cannot be used for Weighting and Balancing.