Web Survey Bibliography
Social desirability bias (SDB) in surveys refers to systematic error resulting from the desire of respondents to avoid embarrassment and project a favorable image to others. Respondents may choose responses they believe are more socially desirable or acceptable rather than choosing responses that are reflective of their true thoughts or feelings. This may occur more often by some respondents than others (this tendency is believed to be a personality trait based on the subject's need for approval), for some questions rather than others (experience show that is occurs more often when asking about voting behavior, behavior related to addiction, crimes, illnesses, sexual behavior, charity, financial matters, and being a well informed and cultured person) or for interviewer-administered rather than self-administered survey modes. For web surveys previous studies have shown that the problem of SDB is smaller than in other survey modes due to self-administration and perceived anonymity of the response process. Nevertheless, the presence of questions sensitive to SDB may negatively influence data quality in web surveys as well.
With our paper we will show in which cases the presence of questions sensitive to SDB negatively influences data quality. For this purpose we will study the behaviour of respondents in a sample of 50 surveys selected out of more than 2,000 web surveys, hosted by a web survey service at our University. We will explore how the following factors influence different indicators of data quality (item nonresponse, survey brake-off and response patterns):
- presence of questions sensitive to SDB (share among all questions, position in the questionnaire),
- reassuring subjects that their responses will be kept confidential or anonymous in the invitation page,
- characteristics of respondents.
The analysis will be performed at three levels – level of individual questions, level of questionnaire, level of respondent.
Studying several surveys with a meta-analytical approach and performing a multi-level statistical analysis is relatively rare approach when studying SDB. It provides precious insight into how presence of questions subject to SDB influences the behaviour. Based on that, new knowledge is generated about tailoring the questionnaire design and developing survey questions so to minimize nonresponse and social-desirability of answers.
Conference Homepage (abstract)
Web survey bibliography (364)
- Displaying Videos in Web Surveys: Implications for Complete Viewing and Survey Responses; 2017; Mendelson, J.; Lee Gibson, J.; Romano Bergstrom, J. C.
- Usability Testing for Survey Research; 2017; Geisen, E.; Romano Bergstrom, J. C.
- Where, When, How and with What Do Panel Interviews Take Place and Is the Quality of Answers Affected...; 2017; Niebruegge, S.
- Nonresponses as context-sensitive response behaviour of participants in online-surveys and their relevance...; 2017; Wetzlehuetter, D.
- Do distractions during web survey completion affect data quality? Findings from a laboratory experiment...; 2017; Wenz, A.
- Predicting Breakoffs in Web Surveys; 2017; Mittereder, F.; West, B. T.
- 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.
- Methods for Evaluating Respondent Attrition in Web-Based Surveys; 2016; Hochheimer, C. J.; Sabo, R. T.; Krist, A. H.; Day, T.; Cyrus, J.; Woolf, S. H.
- Mobile-only web survey respondents; 2016; Lugtig, P. J.; Toepoel, V.; Amin, A.
- Using official surveys to reduce bias of estimates from nonrandom samples collected by web surveys; 2016; Beresovsky, V.; Dorfman, A.; Rumcheva, P.
- Making use of Internet interactivity to propose a dynamic presentation of web questionnaires; 2016; Revilla, M.; Ochoa, C.; Turbina, A.
- Helping respondents provide good answers in Web surveys; 2016; Couper, M. P.; Zhang, C.
- Gamifying. Not all fun and games; 2016; Stubington, P.; Crichton, C.
- FocusVision 2015 Annual MR Technology Report; 2016; Macer, T., Wilson, S.
- Are sliders too slick for surveys?; 2016; Buskirk, T. D.
- Research gamification for quality pharmaceutical stakeholder insights; 2016; Mondry, B.; Fink, L.
- SurveyTester from Knowledge Navigators ; 2016; Macer, T.
- Simplifying your mobile solution; 2016; Berry, K.
- Effects of motivating question types with graphical support in multi channel design studies; 2016; Luetters, H.; Friedrich-Freksa, M.; Vitt, SGoldstein, D. G.
- Why Do Web Surveys Take Longer on Smartphones?; 2016; Couper, M. P.; J. J.Peterson, G. J.
- Usability Testing within Agile Process; 2016; Holland, T.
- Association of Eye Tracking with Other Usability Metrics ; 2016; Olmsted, E. L.
- Cognitive Probing Methods in Usability Testing – Pros and Cons; 2016; Nichols, E. M.
- Thinking Inside the Box Visual Design of the Response Box Affects Creative Divergent Thinking in an...; 2016; Mohr, A. H.; Sell, A.; Lindsay, T.
- Distractions: The Incidence and Consequences of Interruptions for Survey Respondents ; 2016; Ansolabehere, S.; Schaffner, B. F.
- The Effect of CATI Questions, Respondents, and Interviewers on Response Time; 2016; Olson, K.; Smyth, J. D.
- New Generation of Online Questionnaires?; 2016; Revilla, M.; Ochoa, C.; Turbina, A.
- The Analysis of Respondent’s Behavior toward Edit Messages in a Web Survey; 2016; Park, Y.
- Effects of Data Collection Mode and Response Entry Device on Survey Response Quality; 2016; Ha, L.; Zhang, Che.; Jiang, W.
- Navigation Buttons in Web-Based Surveys: Respondents’ Preferences Revisited in the Laboratory; 2016; Romano Bergstrom, J. C.; Erdman, C.; Lakhe, S.
- Online Surveys are Mixed-Device Surveys. Issues Associated with the Use of Different (Mobile) Devices...; 2016; Toepoel, V.; Lugtig, P. J.
- A Technical Guide to Effective and Accessible web Surveys; 2016; Baatard, G.
- The Validity of Surveys: Online and Offline; 2016; Wiersma, W.
- Computer-assisted and online data collection in general population surveys; 2016; Skarupova, K.
- A Framework of Incorporating Thai Social Networking Data in Online Marketing Survey; 2016; Jiamthapthaksin, R.; Aung, T. H.; Ratanasawadwat, N.
- Creation and Usability Testing of a Web-Based Pre-Scanning Radiology Patient Safety and History Questionnaire...; 2016; Robinson, T. J.; DuVall, S.; Wiggins III, R
- 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.
- Taming Big Data: Using App Technology to Study Organizational Behavior on Social Media; 2015; Bail, C. A.
- A Meta-Analysis of Breakoff Rates in Mobile Web Surveys; 2015; Mavletova, A. M.; Couper, M. P.
- Optimizing the Decennial Census for Mobile – A Case Study; 2015; Nichols, E. M.; Hawala, E. O.; Horwitz, R.; Bentley, M.
- Using Video to Reinvigorate the Open Question; 2015; Cape, P.
- Are Sliders Too Slick for Surveys? An Experiment Comparing Slider and Radio Button Scales for Smartphone...; 2015; Aadland, D.; Aalberg, T.
- Web Surveys Optimized for Smartphones: Are there Differences Between Computer and Smartphone Users?; 2015; Andreadis, I.
- Designing web surveys for the multi-device internet; 2015; de Bruijne, M.
- Data Quality Standards in Mixed Mode Surveys; 2015; Bremer, J.; Barbulescu, M.; Bennett, J.
- Changing from CAPI to CAWI in an ongoing household panel - experiences from the German Socio-Economic...; 2015; Schupp, J.; Sassenroth, D.
- Rating Scales in Web Surveys: A Test of New Drag-and-Drop Rating Procedures; 2015; Kunz, T.
- A Review of Issues in Gamified Surveys; 2015; Keusch, F.; Zhang, Che.