An important research element in the pilots' work involves asking young people for their opinions on their social software activities.

But how do we know when they are telling the truth? Do we simply accept what they say? How can we know when they might not be telling the truth? And what reasons do they have for not telling the truth, making stuff up or simply lying?

Staff at Station House Media Unit (SHMU) in Scotland found that many young people appear to be making things up during discussions about Incluso activities.

For example, in one video testimonial it was quite clear that the male youth being interviewed was exaggerating in his answers. "On reflection, I feel he was making more of his activities because he knew that's what we were interested in," said Sam Thom, Incluso coordinator, SHMU, Scotland. "Comparing his interview answers with the reality of his social software activities reflected that. This is really common when we get involved in more formal interviews, less so when it's informal chatting."

But what's the impact of this phenomenon on Incluso activities and how widespread is it?

Incluso pilot coordinators are trying to find evidence of changes in attitudes, behaviour or experience. Overly positive testimonials can skew conclusions and could adversely affect the final outcome of the project. Pilot teams must be vigilant for this kind of exaggeration and they should be impartial when assessing the content of these testimonials, but still be open to learn when presented with surprising results.

At SHMU we're going to experiment with allowing young people to interview one another in such video testimonials. This is an attempt to take the formality and the staff member out of the interview, in the hope that the young people may be more likely to tell the truth and express their true opinions.