Web Survey Bibliography
Measurement of attitudes, opinions, and behavior in web surveys often relies on letting respondents indicate their agreement or disagreement with several statements on a continuum of predetermined answer categories on a horizontal rating scale presented in a grid format. When designing rating scales for web surveys, a number of decisions have to be made, among others about the response order of the scale points, i.e. whether the scale runs from positive to negative or from negative to positive. In the literature, there is no conclusive evidence about the influence of the direction of extreme point labeling (e.g., Belson, 1966; Christian et al. 2009; Dickson & Albaum 1975; Friedman et al., 1993; Weng & Cheng, 2000) and various theories have been used to explain differences in answer behavior; satisficing and primacy effects (Krosnick & Alwim 1987), interpretative heuristics (Tourangeau et al. 2004; 2007; Koller/Salzberger 2010), and cultural differences (Ferall-Nunge/Couper 2011; Tellis/Chandrasekaran 2010; Yang et al. 2010). As an increasing number of samples for web surveys is drawn from online panels and some respondents potentially participate in a large number of web surveys nowadays, their past experience with and expectations about the presentation of rating scales has to be considered. The presented study considers this diverse experience among web survey respondents. In three independent experiments with online panel members, professionals, and students the response order of rating scales was experimentally varied. The influence of scale direction was measured on different indicators of data quality (response distribution, answer differentiation, straightlining, response styles). The results indicate that respondents with more web survey experience assume that rating scales usually run from positive-to-negative.
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Web survey bibliography - Keusch, F. (21)
- Web Survey Gamification - Increasing Data Quality in Web Surveys by Using Game Design Elements; 2017; Schacht, S.; Keusch, F.; Bergmann, N.; Morana, S.
- The Impact of Response Scale Direction on Survey Responses in a Mixed-mode Survey ; 2016; Hu, M.; Yan, T.; Keusch, F.
- The Impact of Scale Direction, Alignment and Length on Responses to Rating Scale Questions in a Web...; 2016; Keusch, F.; Liu, M.; Yan, T.
- A Review of Issues in Gamified Surveys; 2015; Keusch, F.; Zhang, Che.
- Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 7: Results from Methodological Experiments; 2015; Blom, A. G.; Burton, J.; Booker, C. L.; Cernat, A.; Fairbrother, M.; Jaeckle, A.; Kaminska, O.; Keusch...
- Impact of response scale direction on survey responses in web and mobile web surveys; 2015; Yan, T.; Keusch, F.
- The Effects of the Direction of Rating Scales on Survey Responses in a Telephone Survey; 2015; Keusch, F., Yan, T.
- The Influence of Answer Box Format on Response Behavior on List-Style Open-Ended Questions; 2014; Keusch, F.
- Motives for joining nonprobability online panels and their association with survey participation behavior...; 2014; Keusch, F., Batinic, B., Mayerhofer, W.
- The Influence of Answer Box Format, Personal Topic Interest, and Respondent Characteristics on Response...; 2013; Keusch, F.
- The Direction of Rating Scales and Its Influence on Response Behavior in Web Surveys; 2012; Keusch, F.
- Open-ended Questions in Web Surveys: One Large vs. Ten Small Boxes; 2012; Keusch, F.
- The influence of social desirability on data quality in face-to-face and web surveys; 2012; Keusch, F.
- The influence of personality traits and motives for joining on participation behavior in online panels...; 2011; Keusch, F.
- Does the direction of Likert-type scales influence response behavior in web surveys?; 2011; Keusch, F.
- The Influence Of The Direction Of Likert-Type Scales In Web Surveys On Response Behavior In Different...; 2011; Keusch, F.
- Does Making The Survey Topic More Salient Lead To An Expert Bias? – The Influence of Announcing...; 2010; Keusch, F., Mayerhofer, W., Weilbuchner, N., Jungreithmaier, S.
- Online Access Panels: A detailed look at different Ways of Entering, their Costs and Participation Behavior...; 2010; Führer, R., Keusch, F.
- Can a professional questionnaire layout make up for a boring topic? The mediating role of topic interest...; 2010; Keusch, F., Mayerhofer, W., Jungreithmaier, S., Weilbuchner, N., Fuehrer, R., Kling, H.
- Maßnahmen zur Steigerung der Responserate bei listenbasierten Stichproben in Webbefragungen; 2009; Keusch, F.
- Increasing response rates in list based samples; 2009; Keusch, F., Kurz, H., Penzkofer, P.