Liar’s data: Is your data telling the truth?

For almost the entirety of the 1980s, my mother was aged 32. At some point she decided this was the number she was most comfortable with to describe who she was, how she felt, and what she thought she could get away with.

She was neither the first nor last to cook the age books, and we often take it for granted that people will take the odd liberty when describing themselves. And whilst that may be comforting for the person making these claims, it makes it problematic for those using this information in any critical planning.

‘I love you’. ’The cheque’s in the post’. ‘This data is accurate and free from bias’. The latter might not be quite as well known as the first two famous lies but if you work in marketing and you are reliant on purchased, third-party data then you should bear in mind that people lie – particularly when they are asked to describe themselves.

This means that, like my mother, they often fudge the most basic of demographics such as age, gender and income.