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A flood of new users on an online platform has disrupted the demographic composition of surveys.

On the online platform Prolific people can participate in surveys that are needed to conduct scientific behavioral studies. For their participation they receive a monetary reward. TikTok user Sarah Frank has her viewers in a video on this opportunity to get money earn , pointed out – which had unexpected consequences.

Share of women in high-altitude flight

Like The Verge reports , numerous survey results were falsified because suddenly a Large number of young women took part. In some surveys, the proportion of women was 85 percent and the average age was suddenly 21 years . Sarah Frank, who just graduated from high school, apparently encouraged many of her peers to follow her example.

Nobody expected it

Your video has 4, 1 million views generated. Frank himself did not expect to reach so many people. Prolific, on the other hand, did not have a mechanism to control the demographic balance of survey participants because it was never necessary before. “We were taken by surprise and didn’t foresee the impact it would have,” says Prolific co-founder Phelim Bradley.

Return to normal

The sudden onslaught of young women allegedly 4600 polls falsified . The vast majority of this can be done again. After a large wave of new users at the beginning of August, the gender ratio is slowly returning to the usual forms at Prolific. The incident now means that the platform will control the demographic composition of surveys in the future.

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