Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is quantitative research?

A. Quantitative research involves analysing statistically representative samples. For example, when researching an election a quantitative poll will try to include answers from people who collectively represent the mix of people in an electorate. If 5% of electors are women between the ages of 20 and 30, then 5% of respondents to the poll should also be in that group. The questions that people are asked will require an answer selected from a list provided by the interviewer, such as "Yes" or "No".

Q. What is qualitative research?

A. This research typically involves asking small groups of people to discuss issues. The interviewees will be selected for particular characteristics, but they are unlikely to ever be statistically representative. The questions that they are asked will be open, not chosen from a list.

Q. What is the major difference between quantitative and qualitative research?

A. The major difference is that quantitative research can give very precise answers to what percentage of people agree with particular propositions, but qualitative research can give insight into why people agree with those propositions. Qualitative research is largely hindsight, while quantitative research is largely foresight.

Q. Every time I fill in your questionnaire you ask me how I intend to vote. Why do you do this?

A. It is important to know how you intend to vote because this influences our analysis. For example, the views of voters who might change their mind on an election (so-called swinging voters) can be more important to politicians than those who will not change their mind. Knowing what category you fit into allows us to judge better what views politicians might be taking account of in designing their campaigns.

Q. But I told you my voting intention last survey.

A. We ask you your voting intention every time because you might have changed it since last time, so that even if we did track your answers from other surveys, the answer could be incorrect at this moment.

Q. If you are doing qualitative rather than quantitative research, why do you summarise the results of your surveys?

A. We do that because the statistics are representative of people who have filled in our questionnaire. They do have some value quantitatively, they are just not particularly useful in predicting broad election results. However, we have found that the results we get in sub-categories can have some quantitative value. For example in the New South Wales election we found that 50% of our respondents intending to vote for the Greens normally voted for the ALP.