Trust in professional cycling - Dissertation survey

[soph89]

Hi all.

I am currently writing my MA dissertation on public trust of Professional Elite cycling in a post Armstrong era. I am hoping to gain the insights of fellow supporters of the sport and the general public to understand if past doping scandals have tainted your view/opinion of the sport and how you engage with it.

I would appreciate it massively if you could participate in the survey below - Participation is completely voluntary and you will remain anonymous at all times should you wish to participate.

Feel free to share the link below with anyone you think may be interested in this topic.

https://surveyplanet.com/578b7ff16dabafef545e2575

Many thanks in advance
Sophie

 

[Spinney]

I've answered, in spite of the dizzying whizzing in and out of each question (why do that?)

For 'Do you cycle?', what is the difference between yes (leisure) and yes (non-professional)?

Do you follow the sport of cycling. I put Yes, but I only watch the Tour de France, so is that really 'following' ?

Would a doping allegation of a rider you support affect.... I watch but I don't 'support' any teams or riders. So not really answerable by someone like me with mild interest.

 

[jefmcg]

This is a truly terrible survey. you can answer that you think the sport is fine, then you get to this one
Do you think the media have contributed to the sports bad reputation and association with drugs?

Yes or no. So it's not an option to think the sport doesn't have a bad reputation.

Then there is the questions with number answers. it says 0-10 but you actually only can put 1-10. And that is followed by a single question on a page alone. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the previous page.

If Other, Please specify

?????

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Done.

 

[mjr]

I am currently writing my MA dissertation on public trust of Professional Elite cycling in a post Armstrong era. I am hoping to gain the insights of fellow supporters of the sport and the general public to understand if past doping scandals have tainted your view/opinion of the sport and how you engage with it.

Obviously an MA and not an MSc or MMath in Statistics, because an introduction like that will bias the responses quite obviously, even before people get to the excellent points @jefmcg makes. I've highlighted three of the most damaging phrases in bold. I hope that this is the pilot survey and not the main one for the dissertation.

 

[mjr]

I confirm the above-mentioned problems and noticed two other small problems:
There's no Previous button so at least once, I clicked something then changed my mind.
Trying to collect demographic data with no "prefer not to answer" option will lead to some people giving false responses.

 

[soph89]

I've answered, in spite of the dizzying whizzing in and out of each question (why do that?)

For 'Do you cycle?', what is the difference between yes (leisure) and yes (non-professional)?

Do you follow the sport of cycling. I put Yes, but I only watch the Tour de France, so is that really 'following' ?

Would a doping allegation of a rider you support affect.... I watch but I don't 'support' any teams or riders. So not really answerable by someone like me with mild interest.

Hi.
Leisure being a non competitive activity whereas non pro would be someone who actively competes in events but is not associated to any team

 

[soph89]

Obviously an MA and not an MSc or MMath in Statistics, because an introduction like that will bias the responses quite obviously, even before people get to the excellent points @jefmcg makes. I've highlighted three of the most damaging phrases in bold. I hope that this is the pilot survey and not the main one for the dissertation.

Excuse me, what exactly do you mean by "obviously an MA"

The wording of my intro is based on a clear observation of the sport over the past 5 years. Are you doubting it's questionable reputation? You've only got to look at how Froome has been treated over the past few years and the crisis tactics Team Sky has put in place to manage their reputation with the public and media (eg. Data release and the language they use in press communications)

 

[KneesUp]

I have done the survey, but as @jefmcg says, one is forced to agree with various statements one might not agree with in order to complete it.

 

[soph89]

Thank you all for your comments. I will make all the necessary changes for the finalised survey

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Hi.
Leisure being a non competitive activity whereas non pro would be someone who actively competes in events but is not associated to any team

Amateur competition would be a better term

 

[mjr]

Excuse me, what exactly do you mean by "obviously an MA"

The wording of my intro is based on a clear observation of the sport over the past 5 years. Are you doubting it's questionable reputation? You've only got to look at how Froome has been treated over the past few years and the crisis tactics Team Sky has put in place to manage their reputation with the public and media (eg. Data release and the language they use in press communications)

I mean that if you were a statistics major, your supervisor would have discouraged you releasing a survey with such an introduction.

My opinion of the sport's reputation is as irrelevant as yours should be. Or are you only interested in the views of those who think Armstrong's career defined an era, that the doping was scandalous and so on?

 

[soph89]

I mean that if you were a statistics major, your supervisor would have discouraged you releasing a survey with such an introduction.

My opinion of the sport's reputation is as irrelevant as yours should be. Or are you only interested in the views of those who think Armstrong's career defined an era, that the doping was scandalous and so on?

My opinion is based upon months of research that I've been doing for this work.
I have only followed the sport for the past 2 or 3 years so the back story of his era and the many before it has been gathered through books, interviews and analysis of media coverage, not from personal bias as you suggest.

 

[soph89]

My opinion is based upon months of research that I've been doing for this work.
I have only followed the sport for the past 2 or 3 years so the back story of his era and the many before it has been gathered through books, interviews and analysis of media coverage, not from personal bias as you suggest.

The decision to focus on a post Armstrong era is a way to reduce what would be a mamouth time period - This allowing me the opportunity to focus on recent/current examples while also increasing the possible sample size as interest in cycling in the UK has increased significantly due to the sucess of Froome, Wiggins and Cavendish

 

[KneesUp]

My opinion is based upon months of research that I've been doing for this work.
I have only followed the sport for the past 2 or 3 years so the back story of his era and the many before it has been gathered through books, interviews and analysis of media coverage, not from personal bias as you suggest.

I think the point is that if you were after evidence to support a pre-determined thesis you would phrase the survey as you have, whereas if you were after untainted data to test your hypothesis, you would present the survey and the questions in as neutral a way as possible.