Private Opinion Research

Success is conditional on how well you know your audience. Yet distortions to understanding your audience are everywhere.

Public opinion can be misleading when people go along with the crowd rather than voicing their true beliefs (conformity bias), polling overlooks real-world trade-offs, and broad labels hide important details (leaky abstractions). These distortions create false consensus or needless conflict, causing leaders to make high-risk decisions based on an inaccurate picture of what people really think.

TOUCH

What if a new technology is unaware of its perceptual risks?

TOUCH

What if a brand actually knows how it’s going to be perceived before it gets #canceled?

TOUCH

What if a media company could tap into an unmet well of appetite for content that nobody knows about?

Building off of validated methods from business and academia, there is a way to know if and how much your audience is self-silencing.

Imagine a world in which leaders across business, politics, media, and philanthropy can peel back the curtain of self-silencing and make big bets.

HOW IT WORKS

Maximize privacy and cut through bias with a validated survey method: the list experiment.

Unlike traditional survey methods, respondents are never asked to directly share their opinion about individual statements.

Instead, respondents are asked to read a list of statements and choose the number with which they agree.

By comparing responses from whose who see a list that includes the sensitive statement—the treatment group—to a group that sees a list without the sensitive statement—the control group—we can make inferences about the prevalence of that private opinion in an audience.

The cost of being wrong

Opportunity cost: You waste time pursuing an issue voters don’t actually care about.
Literal cost: You spend valuable resources courting or activating the wrong audience, which could result in a career-ending loss
Negative perceptions: You don’t pursue an issue voters do really care about and appear out of touch.
Backlash: You find yourself on the wrong side of an issue on which you thought you had solid footing.

What if...

…Terry McAuliffe knew that most Virginia parents actually don’t trust teachers to make the best decisions for their children?
… Universities knew that demand for a college degree and respect for a college education were plummeting before enrollment numbers begin to drop?
… Republicans knew that support for access to abortions was unwaveringly high among women voters before positioning itself as the anti-abortion party?
…Congressman Max Rose could have anticipated the electoral backlash he'd receive from joining a Black Lives Matter protest?

Actionable intelligence, not just data

Your partner in decision science

How we do research differently

See what insight can do

Private Opinion Research

But the cost of being wrong is even scarier

Success is conditional on how well you know your audience. Yet distortions to understanding your audience are everywhere.

When people are lying, knowing the truth is an unfair advantage.

Building off of validated methods from business and academia, there is a way to know if and how much your audience is self-silencing.

Maximize privacy and cut through bias with a validated survey method: the list experiment.

The cost of being wrong

What if...

Understanding Your Audience is Non-Negotiable

Actionable intelligence, not just data

Your partner in decision science

How we do research differently

See what insight can do

Private Opinion Research

But the cost of being wrong is even scarier

Success is conditional on how well you know your audience. Yet distortions to understanding your audience are everywhere.

When people are lying, knowing the truth is an unfair advantage.

Building off of validated methods from business and academia, there is a way to know if and how much your audience is self-silencing.

Maximize privacy and cut through bias with a validated survey method: the list experiment.

The cost of being wrong

What if...

Success stories at a glance

Understanding Your Audience is Non-Negotiable