Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

André Grow; Daniela Perrotta; Emanuele Del Fava; Jorge Cimentada; Francesco Rampazzo; Sofia Gil-Clavel; Emilio Zagheni; René D. Flores; Ilana Ventura; Ingmar Weber

doi:10.1111/rssa.12948

Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

André Grow, Daniela Perrotta, Emanuele Del Fava, Jorge Cimentada, Francesco Rampazzo, Sofia Gil-Clavel, Emilio Zagheni, René D. Flores, Ilana Ventura, Ingmar Weber

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Social scientists increasingly use Facebook's advertising platform for research, either in the form of conducting digital censuses of the general population, or for recruiting participants for survey research. Both approaches depend on the accuracy of the data that Facebook provides about its users, but little is known about how accurate these data are. We address this gap in a large-scale, cross-national online survey (N = 137,224), in which we compare self-reported and Facebook-classified demographic information (sex, age and region of residence). Our results suggest that Facebook's advertising platform can be fruitfully used for conducing social science research if additional steps are taken to assess the accuracy of the characteristics under consideration.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	S343-S363
Journal	Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society
Volume	185
Issue number	S2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12948
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2022
Externally published	Yes

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Grow, A., Perrotta, D., Del Fava, E., Cimentada, J., Rampazzo, F., Gil-Clavel, S., Zagheni, E., Flores, R. D., Ventura, I., & Weber, I. (2022). Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, 185(S2), S343-S363. https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12948

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title = "Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey",

abstract = "Social scientists increasingly use Facebook's advertising platform for research, either in the form of conducting digital censuses of the general population, or for recruiting participants for survey research. Both approaches depend on the accuracy of the data that Facebook provides about its users, but little is known about how accurate these data are. We address this gap in a large-scale, cross-national online survey (N = 137,224), in which we compare self-reported and Facebook-classified demographic information (sex, age and region of residence). Our results suggest that Facebook's advertising platform can be fruitfully used for conducing social science research if additional steps are taken to assess the accuracy of the characteristics under consideration.",

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Grow, A, Perrotta, D, Del Fava, E, Cimentada, J, Rampazzo, F, Gil-Clavel, S, Zagheni, E, Flores, RD, Ventura, I & Weber, I 2022, 'Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, vol. 185, no. S2, pp. S343-S363. https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12948

Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey. / Grow, André; Perrotta, Daniela; Del Fava, Emanuele et al.
In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society, Vol. 185, No. S2, 01.12.2022, p. S343-S363.

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

AU - Grow, André

AU - Perrotta, Daniela

AU - Del Fava, Emanuele

AU - Cimentada, Jorge

AU - Rampazzo, Francesco

AU - Gil-Clavel, Sofia

AU - Zagheni, Emilio

AU - Flores, René D.

AU - Ventura, Ilana

AU - Weber, Ingmar

PY - 2022/12/1

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AB - Social scientists increasingly use Facebook's advertising platform for research, either in the form of conducting digital censuses of the general population, or for recruiting participants for survey research. Both approaches depend on the accuracy of the data that Facebook provides about its users, but little is known about how accurate these data are. We address this gap in a large-scale, cross-national online survey (N = 137,224), in which we compare self-reported and Facebook-classified demographic information (sex, age and region of residence). Our results suggest that Facebook's advertising platform can be fruitfully used for conducing social science research if additional steps are taken to assess the accuracy of the characteristics under consideration.

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JF - Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A: Statistics in Society

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Is Facebook's advertising data accurate enough for use in social science research? Insights from a cross-national online survey

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