Professor Annette Jäckle on BBC Radio 4 More or Less on trusting headline statistics

Annette Jäckle

Investigative BBC Radio 4 programme More of Less looked into the recent survey statistic by Resume Templates claiming 77 per cent of young people brought a parent along to their job interviews.

More or Less asked Professor of Survey Methodology and Deputy Director of Understanding Society, Annette Jäckle, for her expert opinion on the survey methods in order to unpick the reality behind the statistics used.

Professor Jäckle – introduced as “an academic who knows how to run a survey” – explained that the methodology of the survey quoted in the press is less than robust – the statistics are based only on a very small sample of young people answering a questionnaire during an online gaming app only available on android phones, thus restricting the number of people who were able to participate. She added “I don’t think people were really paying attention and answering these questions carefully”.

Listen again to More or Less here.

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest