Abstract #3:
This research explores the utility of Facebook applications as survey and passive data collection platforms. Facebook applications are interactive, user-facing tools that allow users to interact and enhance the user experience through social games, quizzes, and other interactive and social tools. Facebook’s Graph Application Programming Interface offers researchers the tools necessary to develop applications that can allow access to both public and private data (provided access is permitted), which in turn offer data collection capabilities survey researchers are now only beginning to understand. Traditional survey questionnaires constrain not only the type of data that can be collected, but also the volume, accuracy, and timeliness of the data and data collection process. Facebook’s Graph API is revolutionizing the way we conceptualize the word “data,” which has major implications across a variety of dimensions directly related to the field of survey research. For instance, Facebook offers the capability to stream data in real-time, drawing from a user-base of over 800 million, and in forms that are both new (e.g. location check-in, social networks, and status updates) and old (e.g. demographic data). Facebook applications offer researchers an opportunity to develop unique approaches to address research questions. These applications also provide a platform for questionnaire administration, data creation, and passive data collection in real-time. This paper explores the applicability of Facebook applications, such as social gaming and Facebook user-experience-enhancing applications, to survey research. Results from a pilot study involving the use of a Facebook application to engage the social networks of military personnel to build registries will be used to explore the potential uses of applications. Specifically, this research aims to provide a better understanding of the new types of data being developed, Facebook applications as a mode of questionnaire administration, participant recruitment, implications to sample development, and limitations to be addressed going forward.

Abstract #4:
The Randomized Response Technique (RRT) is used to encourage accurate responding to sensitive survey questions. When using the RRT, respondents are given two questions (one sensitive and the other nonsensitive with a known response distribution) and are instructed to answer one of them. The question to be answered is determined by the outcome of a random act with a known probability (e.g. a coin toss), that only the respondent sees. Researchers do not know which question each respondent answered, but are able to calculate proportions for each response to the sensitive question. Though it is designed to reduce error, the RRT may actually increase measurement error if respondents implement it incorrectly. Evaluating the RRT is challenging because the outcome of its driving feature, the randomizer, is concealed from researchers. As a result, prior research has typically assumed that higher reporting of undesirable responses signals the RRT’s success. Eight RRT items were evaluated in a non-probability survey of 75 participants of the online virtual world, Second Life (SL). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three modes: face-to-face interview in SL, voice chat interview in SL, or web. The randomizer across all modes was an interactive, 3-dimensional virtual coin toss that was discreetly manipulated by the researchers in order to determine with near certainty whether participants followed the procedure. Only 67% of participants followed the procedure for every RRT item. The greatest rate of procedural noncompliance on an item was 13%. In a true application of the RRT, such noncompliance would result in greatly inflated estimates. There were no significant differences in RRT compliance by demographic characteristics or survey mode. Most participants indicated in debriefing questions that they enjoyed this method of answering questions, but their noncompliance is cause for additional skepticism about using the RRT.