TY  - JOUR
AU  - Khazaal, Yasser
AU  - van Singer, Mathias
AU  - Chatton, Anne
AU  - Achab, Sophia
AU  - Zullino, Daniele
AU  - Rothen, Stephane
AU  - Khan, Riaz
AU  - Billieux, Joel
AU  - Thorens, Gabriel
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/07/07
TI  - Does Self-Selection Affect Samples’ Representativeness in Online Surveys? An Investigation in Online Video Game Research
JO  - J Med Internet Res
SP  - e164
VL  - 16
IS  - 7
KW  - Internet
KW  - bias
KW  - online survey
KW  - self-selection
KW  - random sample
KW  - World of Warcraft
KW  - massively multiplayer online role-playing
AB  - Background: The number of medical studies performed through online surveys has increased dramatically in recent years. Despite their numerous advantages (eg, sample size, facilitated access to individuals presenting stigmatizing issues), selection bias may exist in online surveys. However, evidence on the representativeness of self-selected samples in online studies is patchy. Objective: Our objective was to explore the representativeness of a self-selected sample of online gamers using online players’ virtual characters (avatars). Methods: All avatars belonged to individuals playing World of Warcraft (WoW), currently the most widely used online game. Avatars’ characteristics were defined using various games’ scores, reported on the WoW’s official website, and two self-selected samples from previous studies were compared with a randomly selected sample of avatars. Results: We used scores linked to 1240 avatars (762 from the self-selected samples and 478 from the random sample). The two self-selected samples of avatars had higher scores on most of the assessed variables (except for guild membership and exploration).  Furthermore, some guilds were overrepresented in the self-selected samples. Conclusions: Our results suggest that more proficient players or players more involved in the game may be more likely to participate in online surveys. Caution is needed in the interpretation of studies based on online surveys that used a self-selection recruitment procedure. Epidemiological evidence on the reduced representativeness of sample of online surveys is warranted. 
SN  - 1438-8871
UR  - http://www.jmir.org/2014/7/e164/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2759
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25001007
DO  - 10.2196/jmir.2759
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/jmir.2759
ER  -