Web Survey Bibliography
It is generally accepted that conducting surveys online is both faster and cheaper than other, more traditional, survey methodologies. Such advantages have helped to drive the growth of online surveys over recent years. In addition to the growth of online surveys, respondents are increasingly required to answer more personal and sensitive questions online. It is therefore important to investigate and understand the behaviour of respondents to sensitive questions in surveys in order to ensure the most effective methodology is employed.
A salient issue in online survey research is the removal of an interviewer. This is particularly relevant when dealing with sensitive topics - when the lack of interviewer presence can remove response bias. Much research has demonstrated that surveys administered online, without an interviewer being present, are characterised by higher levels of self disclosure (Weisband and Kiesler 1996), an increased willingness to answer sensitive questions (Tourangeau 2004) and reductions in socially desirable responding (Frick et al. 2001; Joinson 1999). Furthermore, survey methodologies that reduce the level of question administration by human interviewers (e.g. via computer-aided self interviews) also increase responses to sensitive personal questions and yield more honest, candid answers.
As part of the ongoing experimental work at Ipsos MORI we are investigating the affect of different survey methodologies on respondents’ behaviour to sensitive questions.
In the present paper we present a two part study. Part 1 searches evidence of survey mode effect on disclosure levels and examines data consisting of participants interviewed in one of three conditions. In condition one, 1,645 members of the Ipsos Online Panel completed an online survey. In condition two, 902 were interviewed offline, face-to-face using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) interviewing. Finally, in condition three, 1028 participants were again interviewed offline, using Computer Assisted Self Interviewing (CASI). Direct comparison were possible between the two offline samples. Allocation to the online sample, on the other hand, was not randomized thus propensity score adjustment was applied to control for possible confounding of online/offline comparisons. Respondents were asked more than 50 questions about a variety of topics from politics to media consumption. Within these questions respondents were asked five which were deemed as sensitive. The topics for the sensitive items covered: immigration, adultery, drink driving, abortion, and attitudes toward debt.
Part 2 examined the association between the level of sensitivity and level of disclosure, and specifically any differences between the three survey modes. To estimate the social sensitivity an ad hoc panel of five experienced independent social researchers sampled from a larger pool of experts and were asked to rank levels of sensitivity of each of the five questions. After passing reliability tests of agreement between raters the estimated sensitivity was correlated with item disclosure level by mode.
Finally, implications for the handling of sensitive questions in survey research are discussed.
Web survey bibliography - 2007 (157)
- Electronic data collection methods; 2007; Singh, M., Burgess, S.
- Dual-mode electronic survey lessons and experiences; 2007; Lang, M.
- Does mode matter for modeling political choice? Evidence from the 2005 British Election Study; 2007; Sanders, D., Clarke, H. D., Stewart, M. C., Whiteley, P.
- Developments in electronic survey design for establishment surveys; 2007; O'Neill, G.
- Design and development of an electronic survey system; 2007; Aaron, B., Desai, S.
- Counterfactuals and causal inference: Methods and principles for social research; 2007; Morgan, S. L., Winship, C.
- Can I use a panel? Panel conditioning and attrition bias in panel surveys; 2007; Das, M., Toepoel, V., van Soest, A.
- A guide to understanding Internet measurement alternatives; 2007
- Internet research ethics; 2007; Ess, C.
- Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace ; 2007; Dwyer, R., Passerini , K., Hiltz, S. R.
- Knitting Patterns: for interview and analysis; 2007; Jenkins, S.
- Surveys and Technology – Polishing the Crystal Ball; 2007; Neffendorf, H.
- Choosing Web Surveys: mode choices among Youth Cohort Study respondents; 2007; Wardle, H., Robinson, C.
- Using Chat Tools to Perform Evaluation Interviews Eve-Marie Larsen; 2007; Larsen, E.-M.
- The Effect of Reminder Intervals on Response Rates for Web Surveys; 2007; Lemon, J. S.
- A new era of Market Research – Real-Time Sampling™ (RTS); 2007; Davis, H.
- Survey Research in a Wireless World; 2007; Pazurik, A., Cameron, M. R.
- Whither the Web: Web 2.0 and the Changing World of Web Surveys; 2007; Couper, M. P.
- Internet-based survey design for university web sites : a case study of a Thai university ; 2007; Vate-U-Lan, P.
- Visualizing Personal Networks: Working with Participant-aided Sociograms; 2007; Hogan, B., Carrasco, J. A., Wellman, B.
- Online research ethics; 2007; Madge, C.
- Response time measurement in the lab and on the Web: A comparison; 2007; Galesic, M., Reips, U.-D., Kaczmirek, L., Czienskowski, U., Liske, N., von Oertzen, T.
- Context effects in Internet Surveys: New issues and evidence; 2007; Smyth, J. D., Dillman, D. A., Christian, L. M.
- Technical considerations when implementing online research; 2007; Schmidt, W. C.
- Psychological Research on the Internet; 2007; Krantz, J. H.
- Low-Cost, Hosted Online Surveys Open up Opportunities for Businesses to Quickly Gain Insights Into and...; 2007; Ramstetter Wenzel, A.
- Methodology in Our Madness; 2007; Lynn, P.
- ONLINE DATA COLLECTION – SOLUTION OR BAND-AID?; 2007; Crassweller, A., Williams, D., Thompson, I.
- MAGAZINE EFFECTIVENESS NOW DIRECTLY OBSERVABLE; 2007; Green, M.
- Applications of the Document Object Model (DOM) in Web-Surveys; 2007; Neubarth, W., Kaczmirek, L.
- Respondent acceptance of web and e-mail data reporting for an establishment survey; 2007; Rosen, R. J., Harrell, L. J., Yu, H.
- The influence of interactive probing on response to open-ended questions in a web surveys; 2007; Holland, J. L., Christian, L. M.
- Evolution of web surveys at USDA`s national agricultural statistics service; 2007; Gregory, G., Earp, M.
- Using a web-lite approach to collecting data via the web; 2007; Frederickson-Mele, K.
- Email data collection; 2007; Fast, D.
- Interface Design and Testing for Electronic Self Administered Survey Forms using Excel; 2007; Farrell, E., Hewett, K., Rowley, T., Van Ede, L., Burnside, R.
- A Nonparametric Approach to Weighting Web Panel Data; 2007; Thorburn, D., Lorenc, B.
- Web questionnaires and Web 2.0; 2007; Folkedal, J.
- Automated data collection from internal Enterprise production systems ; 2007; Vik, T.
- Internet Surveys – Data Collection challenges for Statistics (Norway); 2007; Gloersen, R.
- THE READERSHIP CURRENCY: DUTCH DESIGN How a new methodology for AIR measurement opens up new perspectives...; 2007; Petric, I., Appel, M.
- Web-Based Research Tools and Techniques; 2007; Albrecht, A. C., Jones, D. G.
- Web Survey Design in ASP.Net 2.0: A Simple Task with One Line of Code; 2007; Liu, C.
- Deformation analysis of the repeated positional surveys in the undermined localities using web applications...; 2007; Milan, T.
- The Role of Emotions in the Response to Open-ended and Closed Questions in a September 11th On-line...; 2007; Jerabek, H.
- Responding to sensitive Questions in Surveys: A Comparison of Results from Online Panels, Face-to-Face...; 2007; Dayan, D., Schofield Paine, C., Johnson, A. J.
- Using Audio and Video Clips in Web Surveys — Feasibility and Impact on Data Quality; 2007; Fuchs, M., Funke, F.
- Promoting Internet surveys and respondent relationship at INE Portugal: WebInq data collection system...; 2007; Cunha, C., dos Santos, P. S., Goulão, C., Leal, J. F.
- Learning Statistics – in a web-based and non-linear way ; 2007; Rootzen, H.
- Comparisons of Delivery Methods in a Survey Distributed by Internet, Mail, and Telephone; 2007; Lesser, V. M.