Curia Market Research

Curia Market Research is a New Zealand market research company based in Wellington and was established in early 2004. Its principal is political adviser and blogger
Curia is a medium-large company within the industry, employing 38 staff with a capacity of 2000 calling minutes per evening, and specializing in political and special interest polls.
Criticisms of Curia
Curia has been recently criticized due to perceived bias within its research, being accused of producing results 'as requested' for clients. A quote from the Curia Market Research website states "Curia believes polling is an art, as well as a science. The most essential aspect to any poll is taking the time to understand the key drivers for clients, and ensuring the questions asked will be of maximum value." .
One of Curias business relationships is the Family First Organisation who has commissioned polls on homosexuality , legalized prostitution and anti-smacking laws . These studies have been accused of producing results that show inconsistencies with other market research companies like Colmar Brunton.
Same-Sex Marriage Research
A recent Curia poll comissoned by Family First on Same-sex marriage in New Zealand has been widely used by advocates of the movement opposing same sex marriage to suggest the government is acting against constituent support. This includes leading opposition website protectmarriage.org.nz.
The following criticisms of Curias methodology have been accused of producing skewed results:
- 78% of the respondents surveyed were over 46 with only 22% under 45 . This differs from population distributions where only approximately 35% of New Zealands population is over 45.
A effects of skew resulting from response variation by age shown in the report is a difference of: 18-45 year olds opposing the definition being 53-56%, while the amount of 45-61+ year olds that oppose the definition is only 31-47%. Similarly those supporting the definition in 18-45 year olds is 34-43% while 45-61+ rises to 46-62%.
- Respondents in rural locations were also over surveyed (Rural populations having generally more religious and more traditional populations). 31% of respondents were in rural areas while only 8.4% of New Zealands live in rural areas (see source table 1)
- The results of Curia's research with 52% of the population supporting ONLY heterosexual marriage shows stark difference to a May 2012 poll by Colmar Brunton poll in which 63% of New Zealanders supported same-sex marriage, and only 31% were against .
- Poll respondents were 57% female and 43% male; while population distributions show females as 51% of the population . This may have had some effect as females were found to be slightly more likely to approve of same-sex marriage. Although this proportional difference is not as stark as those above.
Prostitution-Legalization Research
Another poll by Curia on Prostitution in New Zealand has been widely sighted by proponents for legislation banning or placing limitations on prostitution in New Zealand
The survey which is available on family firsts website asked 'Should the prostitution laws be amended to specifically ban brothels in residential areas?' and states finding: 66% support banning brothels in residential areas, 26% are in opposition, and 8% are unsure or refuse to answer.
Criticisms include:
- Like the same-sex marriage poll an unusually high proportion of respondents were from conservative rural areas (31% of respondents versus 8.4% population distribution).
- Like the same-sex marriage poll respondent age distribution did not reflect that of the general population distributions; instead favoring older more conservative age groups. The over all effect of this is unknown as approval and disapproval varied significantly throughout age groups without clear trend towards changing attitudes with age.
- Like the same-sex marriage poll respondents were 57% female and 43% male; while population distributions show females as 51% of the population . Although being the same level of disproportionate response this may have had significant effect as females were found to be more substantially more likely to disapprove of prostitution (For females 44% - 64% approve regulation, while in males only 28% - 39% approve)

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