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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Sensitive Topics in PC and Mobile Web Surveys
Year 2013
Access date 27.03.2013
Abstract

Relevance & Research Question:
With the proliferation of mobile Web browsers, there is growing interest in the effects that using such devices to complete Web surveys may have on survey responses. Little research has focused on the possible social context in which respondents may complete survey on mobile devices relative to standard PC-based browsers. Our research focuses on the effect of the device used to complete Web surveys on the answers to sensitive questions.
Methods & Data:
We conducted a two-wave cross-over design among members of a volunteer online access panel in Russia. Respondents were randomly assigned either to a mobile or PC Web survey in the first wave. In the second wave we changed the survey mode for those who completed the first wave: those who filled out the questionnaire via PC in the first wave were invited to complete the survey via mobile phone, and vice versa. A total of 884 respondents completed both waves of the experiment.
Results
We hypothesized that surveys completed on mobile phones may show higher rates of social desirability bias than those completed on a PC-based browser. Our findings offer rather limited support to the main hypothesis, however, we suggest that differences between PC and mobile-based Web surveys depend on the questions being compared. Some differences seem to be found in certain types of questions mostly with higher level of dispersion in the possible answers, particularly in the behavioral open-ended questions with the interval scale and closed-ended questions with the ordinal scale. If there would be differences, PC Web survey seems to produce more honest responses in sensitive items.
Added Value:
The results could help survey practitioners to design and improve data quality in Web surveys completed on different devices.

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Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Full text availabilityAvailable on request
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