Web Survey Bibliography
Studies have shown that various features of the presentation of the response options can affect the distribution of the answers. For example, as work by Schwarz has shown, the numerical labels attached to the scale points can change the apparent meaning of the options; similarly, the colors assigned to the different scale points seems to affect the answers respondents give. In this study, we examine the impact of the spacing of the response options on their relative popularity. In a randomized experiment embedded in a Web survey, we systematically varied the spacing of the options in a series of items using a five-point agreement scale. For some respondents, the scale endpoints were given more space in the scale than the three middle points. For another group of respondents, the scale midpoint (indicating neutrality) was given more space. Finally, for a third group of respondents, the scale points were evenly spaced. We thought that giving an option more space would increase its visual prominence and that this increased prominence would increase the likelihood that respondents would select the option. The results are generally in line with the visual prominence hypothesis. When the extreme options were given more space, respondents were more likely to select; this effect was apparent for four of the six items (and in several analyses across items). The effect of giving the neutral midpoint more space was less clear; only one of the six items shows a significant increase in the popularity of the neutral response when that option was more prominent. This may reflect the relative rarity of such responses. This is one of several studies demonstrating the importance of the visual prominence of information in Web surveys.
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Web survey bibliography - Conrad, F. G. (38)
- Comparing acquiescent and extreme response styles in face-to-face and web surveys; 2017; Liu, M.; Conrad, F. G.; Lee, S.
- Respondent mode choice in a smartphone survey ; 2017; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Antoun, C., Yan, H. Y., Hupp, A., Johnston, M., Ehlen, P., Vickers, L...
- Effects of Mobile versus PC Web on Survey Response Quality: a Crossover Experiment in a Probability...; 2017; Antoun, C.; Couper, M. P.; G. G.Conrad, F. G.
- Comparisons of Online Recruitment Strategies for Convenience Samples: Craigslist, Google AdWords, Facebook...; 2016; Antoun, C., Zhang, C., Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- The Effect of Respondent Commitment and Tailored Fe edback on Response Quality in an Online Survey ; 2016; Cibelli Hibben, K.; Conrad, F. G.
- Comprehension and engagement in survey interviews with virtual agents; 2016; Conrad, F. G.; Schober, M. F.; Jans, M.; Orlowski, R. A.; Nielsen, D.; Levenstein, R. M.
- Social Media Analyses for Social Measurement; 2016; Schober, M. F.; Pasek, J.; Guggenheim, L.; Lampe, C.; Conrad, F. G.
- An experiment testing six formats of 101-point rating scales; 2015; Liu, M.; Conrad, F. G.
- Matrix versus paging designs in a brand attribution task; 2014; Conrad, F. G., McCullough, W., Nishimura, R.
- Speeding in Web Surveys: The tendency to answer very fast and its association with straightlining; 2013; Conrad, F. G.; Zhang, Che.
- Disfluencies and Gaze Aversion in Unreliable Responses to Survey Questions; 2012; Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G., Dijkstra, W., Ongena, Y. P.
- Database Lookup in Web Surveys; 2012; Couper, M. P., Zhang, C., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R.
- Interactive interventions in web surveys can increase response accuracy.; 2011; Conrad, F. G.
- Race-of-Virtual-Interviewer Effects; 2011; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Nielsen, D.
- Which Web Survey Respondents Are Most Likely to Click for Clarification?; 2011; Coiner, T., Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Should I Stay or Should I go: The Effects of Progress Feedback, Promised Task Duration, and Length of...; 2011; Yan, T., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P.
- Professional Web Respondents and Data Quality; 2010; Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Zhang, C.
- Increasing Respondents' Use of Definitions in Web Surveys; 2010; Peytchev, A., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R.
- Interactive Interventions in Web Surveys Can Increase Respondent Conscientiousness; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Kennedy, C.
- Envisioning the Survey Interview of the Future ; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- Experimenting With Speech Interactive Voice Response, Touchtone Data Entry and the Web for the National...; 2009; Cantor, D., Brick, P. D., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G.
- Interactive feedback can improve accuracy of responses in web surveys; 2009; Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Galesic, M.
- Response Order and Response Distributions: The Format of the Response Options in a Web Survey; 2009; Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Balter, O.
- Improving the Design of Complex Matrix Questions; 2009; Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G.
- Classifying Open Occupation Descriptions in the Current Population Survey; 2008; Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Social Cues Can Affect Answers to Threatening Questions in Virtual Interviews; 2008; Lind, L. H., Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Virtual Interviews on Mundane, Non-Sensitive Topics: Dialog Capability Affects Response Accuracy More...; 2008; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F., Jans, M., Orlowski, R. A., Nielsen, D.
- The Impact of the Spacing of the Scale Options in a Web Survey; 2008; Kennedy, C., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P., Redline, C. D.
- Surveys interviews and new communication technologies; 2007; Schober, M. F., Conrad, F. G.
- Interactive Features of Web Surveys; 2007; Conrad, F. G.
- The Impact of the Visible: The Design of Web Surveys; 2007; Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G.
- Color, Labels, and Interpretive Heuristics for Response Scales; 2006; Tourangeau, R., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G.
- Promoting Uniform Question Understanding in Today's and Tomorrow's Surveys; 2005; Conrad, F. G., Schober, M. F.
- Visual Context Effects in Web Surveys; 2005; Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G., Tourangeau, R.
- Spacing, Position, and Order: Interpretive Heuristics for Visual Features of Survey Questions; 2004; Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Web Survey Design: Paging vs. Scrolling; 2004; Peytchev, A., Crawford, S. D., McCabe, S. E., Conrad, F. G., Couper, M. P.
- Use and non-use of clarification features in web surveys; 2003; Tourangeau, R., P., Couper, M. P., Conrad, F. G., Baker, R. P.
- What They See Is What We Get: Response Options for Web Surveys; 2003; Couper, M. P., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F. G., Crawford, S. D.