Important Email #2 Part B
Due in class on November 6, 2012.
This is an individual—not a group—assignment.
Any changes made to these instructions after the 10/18 class will be shown in red.
What you must turn in.
You must create an online survey at the website given below. Use your full name for the survey name. During the November 6 class I will take the survey and ask you questions. You will be graded on the efficacy of this survey. Can the ordinary person understand what you are asking? Is it functional, meaning, is the survey operatable, able recording the right data? Will it elicit the information you are charged with acquiring? Do those two things and you have done your job.
The information you seek.
The first part of this project required you to design a large-scale randomized trial to determine whether EC fats will help reduce obesity.
Now suppose you belong to a marketing firm hired by the pork industry to determine consumers' willingness to return to using lard (pork fat) as a cooking fat, like for frying chicken. Lard currently has a negative connotation—or does it? Consumers are increasingly adventurous with their food, and are becoming skeptical of the advice given by health experts. Maybe people think of lard as being unfairly punished by nutritionists who turned against animal fat without gathering enough evidence to justify it? Maybe some people have already begun to reuse it?
Think about eggs. Thirty years it got labeled as unhealthy by over-zealous health experts, but now enough studies have been conducted to know that eggs—consumed in moderation—are quite healthy. Think about red meat. Thirty years ago we thought it gave you heart attacks. Now some people are for the first time in their life able to stay thin, not by becoming a vegetarian, but by avoiding carbs and relying heavily on meat.
Moreover, what if consumers are exposed to information about the potential health consequences of EC fats? After all, it was health information that turned them against lard in the first place. After asking some survey questions measuring peoples current use of, and willingness to reconsider lard, present them with some of the information provided to you in handouts and measure whether it makes people more receptive to lard.
To reiterate, your survey should...
- Record respondents' current use of lard.
- Measure their attitudes towards and perceptions of lard.
- Elicit information on how information on EC fats changes their willingness to use lard. Be sure to reveal the source of the information to the respondent.
- Ask demographic questions so that you can see how food preferences changes across different types of people.
Sample questions to consider.
It might help to see the type of questions researchers sometimes ask. This attachment contains questions I asked in an online survey about attitudes regarding farm animal welfare. I am NOT asking you to use this same questions in a different context. I want you to be creative, and use this survey merely as a way of coming up with ideas.
The survey software.
You may create and administer your survey at at http://agecon.okstate.edu/survey/Login.asp, using the following identification: user = admin; password = admin. I encourage you to have some friends take the survey to make sure it is clear and operatable.
A great example.
