Survey researchers have continued to be challenged with declining response rates coupled with threats of non-response bias due to disproportionate survey participation in recent years. There is an increasing need to curtail this trend by understanding survey participation attitudes for both types of potential participants, respondents and the elusive non-respondents, in order to formulate an effective approach for future surveys. In an effort to gain insight on survey participation attitudes, The Nielsen Company, working on behalf of the Council for Research Excellence, sponsored one of the most comprehensive follow-up studies to investigate whether households that were sampled and cooperated in Nielsen’s TV diary measurement differed in meaningful ways from households that did not cooperate. This large-scale study employed a multi-mode methodology using mail, Web, telephone and in-person interviewing during 2007-2008 to achieve the highest response rate possible. The results from this extensive follow-up study uncover the attitudes of these past Nielsen respondents and non-respondents on survey research in general and their perception/experience with the research organization. The first phase of the analysis

focused on which attitudinal questions were significant predictors of survey participation. These attitudinal questions focused on some of the usual reasons individuals do not participate in surveys (lack of interest or knowledge on research topic, length of survey, dislike of sharing information, expectation for monetary incentive, etc.). The findings indicated that responses from non-respondents to some of these usual reasons were counterintuitive based on past research findings. The second phase of the analysis is

underway to determine if the reasons that are significantly associated with survey participation in the Nielsen sample differ for various household characteristics. This research will explore the attitudinal and demographic characteristics of these households in order to tailor the recruitment strategy to achieve higher response rates and potentially lower the impact of non-response bias.