The Importance of Carefully Guided Research
If the research is not carefully guided, we have no way of knowing what one person considers stigmatizing. In addition, it would be nice to match the ads with the questionnaire to check the accuracy of the questionnaire responses. Do these responses match the criteria we set? Do they match the ad copy?
12. Yes, they can and should be avoided in future research. The fact that most of the ad writers were male is an example of how the results might be biased. There was no distinction in what the motivating factors were, of why men and women place personal ads. Do they place them for the same reasons? The sample size was incredibly small and the results might be specific that one area of the country, city, or newspaper.