Relevance & Research Question: We examine the effects of different types and amounts of incentives on response, retention and various facets of data quality in an online panel. To our knowledge, this combination of incentive types has not yet been examined.
Methods & Data: Our experiment (N = 5,857) varied a payment into a panelist's bank account, a payment via Paypal, a donation to charity, and no incentive. If an incentive was offered the promised amount was 1 or 3. In addition, participants were either promised a summary of the results or not. Facets of data quality include the number of omitted items, response styles, and social desirability.
Results: Preliminary results indicate that the effect of the amount of the incentive is not linear. Moreover, the effect of the donation to charity is unlike the effect of the other two incentive types. We are continuing the analysis of the data and will present more comprehensive results at the conference.
Added Value: The value of the study is that it offers insights into the multifarious effects of different types of incentives and allows for their direct comparison, all based on a large and heterogeneous sample.