Case Study: University of South Florida improves survey data validity with iMotions

University of South Florida identifies 58% deceitful survey responses with iMotions

The University of South Florida faced a challenge ensuring data validity in its online survey research. While studying the effectiveness of public service announcements, its researchers needed to identify and exclude deceitful respondents who were taking their compensated surveys solely for monetary gain, which risked corrupting their data and wasting resources. To address this, they turned to iMotions and its facial expression analysis software.

Using iMotions, the researchers analyzed participants' facial expressions and attention metrics to classify them as valid, disinterested, or deceitful. This solution successfully identified a significant problem, with 58% of participants from a community sample being deceitful. In contrast, a vetted panel recruited through a commercial provider had a much higher validity rate of 87%. The use of iMotions provided a measurable method to weed out bad actors and obtain a cleaner, more reliable dataset for their research.

University of South Florida