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Mattress
Topper Research Sources and Methodology
The sources for the research data include over 200 reviews /
comments of actual mattress topper owners collected from at
least 50 online message boards.
Message boards
Message boards are generally a far superior source for getting
unbiased and authentic mattress reviews than are product review
websites, such as Epinions or Viewpoints, where virtually
anyone can post a mattress topper review. People in the mattress
industry are well aware that these product review web sites
exist, rank high in the search engines and that people often
base their buying decision on what the reviews say. Therefore,
it is far from out of the question that dishonest people in
the mattress industry provide bogus reviews to sway consumer
opinion one way or the other.
By contrast, most message boards tend to exist in near obscurity
(most don't rank high in the search engines), are made up
of a tight-knit group of people, and often have safeguards
against suspicious contributors, such as someone who appears
from nowhere to contribute to a mattress-related discussion.
(Message boards generally operate by someone posting a question
and then others reply with answers. In this case, someone
typically asks others what mattress topper they recommend
or don’t recommend. People then reply with their opinions
often based on their own mattress topper ownership experience.)
High quantity of reviews
means accurate findings
No one source can make up more than 30% of the total number
of reviews / comments. The large and diverse sample sizes
mean you are getting as accurate information as possible.
Safeguards to ensure precise
and impartial information
To further ensure accurate findings, several measures were
taken. Namely, no data was collected from those who indicated
that they have slept on a particular topper for less than
one week since this is often not enough time to form a solid
opinion one way or the other.
In addition, no data was collected from a message board post
that was older than six years. (90% of owner data is two years
old or less.)
Further, in cases where it was not clear if the reviewer owned
the topper, the comments were not included in the data. (Owners
were identified when they openly said they owned a particular
topper, referred to the topper as “my topper” or
identified themselves as an actual owner in some other obvious,
non-ambiguous way.)
More
information on comfort rating
The comfort
rating for each mattress was computed by dividing
the number of reviews / comments that indicated the mattress
is comfortable by the total number of reviews / comments for
the mattress (sample size).
A mattress was considered comfortable by an owner if any or
all of the following conditions were met:
- The
topper was explicitly described as comfortable.
- The
topper was described as allowing better sleep.
- The
topper was recommended to others.
- The
owner stated that they like the mattress topper.
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