Web Survey Bibliography
Title Incentive Types and Amounts in a Web-based Survey of College Students
Author Krebs, C.; Planty, M.; Stroop, J.; Berzofsky, M.; Lindquist, C.
Year 2015
Access date 22.08.2016
Full text PDF (289 KB)
Abstract
Evidence suggests that personalized invitations tend to increase response rates in web surveys (Cook et al., 2000). However, personalization may have an unintended impact on survey estimates. There is some evidence that personalization may reduce self-disclosure on sensitive items (Joinson, Woodley, & Reips, 2007) or increase socially desirable responding (Heerwegh et al. 2005), but other studies have been unable to replicate these findings (e.g. Heerwegh, 2005; Heerwegh & Loosveldt, 2006). To evaluate the impact of personalization on response rates and survey estimates of sensitive items, we compared the effects of personalized and generic greetings in a survey on an extremely sensitive topic: sexual experiences, including sexual assault victimization.
We conducted a Web survey with students at five universities. Sample members were randomly assigned to receive either a personalized greeting (“Dear John”) or a generic greeting (“Dear [Fill: School Name] Student”) in their survey invitation and reminders. Despite the literature suggesting personalization increases response rates, we hypothesized the personalized greeting would result in a lower response rate because our survey focused on such a highly sensitive topic. We also predicted personalization would result in lower rates of self-reported sexual assault victimization compared to a generic greeting. This is because we assumed sample members receiving the personalized greeting would perceive the survey as less anonymous, making them less likely to participate if they had experienced sexual assault victimization, or less likely to report their victimization experiences if they did participate.
We compared the effect of greeting on response rates and reported victimization. The personalized greeting resulted in a significantly higher response rate, but the generic greeting resulted in higher rates of sexual assault victimization; this difference is statistically significant for females. This experiment adds evidence to the divided literature on the effect of personalization on self-disclosure on sensitive items. Our findings suggest personalization increased response rates but decreased reported victimization, emphasizing that a higher response rate is not necessarily indicative of more accurate data.
We conducted a Web survey with students at five universities. Sample members were randomly assigned to receive either a personalized greeting (“Dear John”) or a generic greeting (“Dear [Fill: School Name] Student”) in their survey invitation and reminders. Despite the literature suggesting personalization increases response rates, we hypothesized the personalized greeting would result in a lower response rate because our survey focused on such a highly sensitive topic. We also predicted personalization would result in lower rates of self-reported sexual assault victimization compared to a generic greeting. This is because we assumed sample members receiving the personalized greeting would perceive the survey as less anonymous, making them less likely to participate if they had experienced sexual assault victimization, or less likely to report their victimization experiences if they did participate.
We compared the effect of greeting on response rates and reported victimization. The personalized greeting resulted in a significantly higher response rate, but the generic greeting resulted in higher rates of sexual assault victimization; this difference is statistically significant for females. This experiment adds evidence to the divided literature on the effect of personalization on self-disclosure on sensitive items. Our findings suggest personalization increased response rates but decreased reported victimization, emphasizing that a higher response rate is not necessarily indicative of more accurate data.
Access/Direct link FCSM Research Conference Homepage (Abstract) / (Full text)
Year of publication2015
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
Web survey bibliography (129)
- Social desirability bias in self-reported well-being measures: evidence from an online survey; 2017; Caputo, A.
- Comparability of web and telephone surveys for the measurement of subjective well-being; 2017; Sarracino, F.; Riillo, C. F. A.; Mikucka, M.
- Privacy Concerns in Responses to Sensitive Questions. A Survey Experiment on the Influence of Numeric...; 2016; Bader, F., Bauer, J., Kroher, M., Riordan, P.
- Thinking Inside the Box Visual Design of the Response Box Affects Creative Divergent Thinking in an...; 2016; Mohr, A. H.; Sell, A.; Lindsay, T.
- Detecting Insufficient Effort Responding with an Infrequency Scale: Evaluating Validity and Participant...; 2016; Huang, J. L.; Bowling, N. A.; Liu, Me.; Li, Yu.
- Detecting careless respondents in web-based questionnaires: Which method to use?; 2016; Niesen, A. S. M.; Meijer, R. R.; Tendeiro, J. N.
- Eye-tracking Social Desirability Bias; 2016; Kaminska, O.; Foulsham, T.
- Short and Sweet? Length and Informative Content of Open-Ended Responses Using SMS as a Research Mode; 2016; Walsh, E.; Brinker, J. K.
- Participant recruitment and data collection through Facebook: the role of personality factors; 2016; Rife, S. C.; Cate, K. L.; Kosinski, M.; Stillwell, D.
- Quantifying Under- and Overreporting in Surveys Through a Dual-Questioning-Technique Design. ; 2016; de Jong , M.; Fox, J.-P.; Steenkamp, J. - B. E. M.
- Will They Stay or Will They Go? Personality Predictors of Dropout in Online Study; 2016; Nestler, S.; Thielsch, M.; Vasilev, E.; Back, M.
- Development of a scale to measure skepticism toward electronic word-of-mouth; 2016; Zhang, Xia.; Ko, M.; Carpenter, D.
- Psychological research in the internet age: The quality of web-based data; 2016; Ramsey, S. R.; Thompson, K. L.; McKenzie, M.; Rosenbaum, A.
- Internet Abusive Use Questionnaire: Psychometric properties; 2016; Calvo-Frances, F.
- Equivalence of paper-and-pencil and computerized self-report surveys in older adults; 2016; Weigold, A.; Weigold, I. K.; Drakeford, M. K.; Dykema, S. A.; Smith, C. A.
- A multi-group analysis of online survey respondent data quality: Comparing a regular USA consumer panel...; 2016; Golden, L.; Albaum, G.; Roster, C. A.; Smith, S. M.
- Swapping bricks for clicks: Crowdsourcing longitudinal data on Amazon Turk; 2016; Daly, T. M.; Nataraajan, R.
- A reliability analysis of Mechanical Turk data; 2016; Rouse, S. V.
- Quota Controls in Survey Research.; 2016; Gittelman, S. H.; Thomas, R. K.; Lavrakas, P. J.; Lange, V.
- Exploring Factors in Contributing Student Progress in the Open University; 2016; Arifin, M. H.
- Incentive Types and Amounts in a Web-based Survey of College Students; 2015; Krebs, C.; Planty, M.; Stroop, J.; Berzofsky, M.; Lindquist, C.
- Comparison of telephone RDD and online panel survey modes on CPGI scores and co-morbidities; 2015; Lee, C.-K.; Back, K.-J.; Williams, Ro. J.; Ahn, S.-S.
- Enhancing Response Usability in a Web-based Survey, But Did Anyone Use It?; 2015; Yoder, R.
- Equivalency of Paper Versus Tablet Computer Survey Data; 2015; Ravert, R. D.; Gomez-Scott, J.; Donnellan, M. B.
- Development and Validation of a Scale for Social Exhibitionism on the Internet (SEXI); 2015; Vetter, M.; Eib, C.; Hill-Kloss, S.; Wollscheid, P.; Hagemann, D.
- Recruiting for addiction research via Facebook; 2015; Thornton, L. K.; Harris, K.; Baker, A.; Johnson, M.; Kay-Lambkin, F. J.
- Internet Research in Psychology; 2015; Gosling, S. D., Mason, W.
- The Prostate Cancer Journey Results of an Online Survey of Men and Their Partners; 2015; O'Shaughnessy, P. K., Laws, T. A., Esterman, A.
- Twelve-month prevalence and predictors of self-reported suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among...; 2015; Kang, E. H., Kim, G. M., Hyun, M. K., Choi, S. M., Kim, J. M., Woo, J. M.
- Emotion management in online groupwork reported by Chinese students; 2014; Xu, J., Du, J., Fan, X.
- Quality of physical therapy from a patient's perspective; factor analysis on web-based survey data...; 2014; Scholte, M., Calsbeek, H., Nijhuis-van der Sanden, M. W. G., Braspenning, J.
- Discriminating the Effects of Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica: A Web Survey of Medical Cannabis...; 2014; Pearce, D. D., Mitsouras, K., Irizarry, K. J.
- Awareness and Treatment of Alcohol Dependence in Japan: Results from Internet-Based Surveys in Persons...; 2014; Taguchi, Y., Takei, Y., Sasai, R., Murteira, S.
- Awareness and correlates of the role of physical activity in breast cancer prevention among Japanese...; 2014; Miyawaki, R., Shibata, A., Ishii, K., Oka, K.
- Differences in intrapersonal and interactional empowerment between lurkers and posters in health-related...; 2014; Petrovcic, A., Petric, G.
- Evaluating mixed-mode redesign strategies against benchmark surveys: the case of the Crime Victimization...; 2014; Klausch, L. T., Hox, J., Schouten, B.
- Confirmation Bias in Web-Based Search: A Randomized Online Study on the Effects of Expert Information...; 2014; Schweiger, S., Oeberst, A., Cress, U.
- The Use of Paradata to Predict Future Cooperation in a Panel Study; 2014; Funke, F., Goeritz, A.
- The impact of New Zealand's 2008 prohibition of piperazine-based party pills on young people'...; 2013; Sheridan, J., Dong, C. Y., Butler, R., Barnes, J.
- PRM144 – An adaptable methodology for the design, implementation and conduct of a web-based survey...; 2013; Yeomans, K., Kawata, A. K., Bassel, M., Burk, C. T., Daniels, S. R., Wilcox, T. K.
- The internet user profile of Italian families of patients with rare diseases: a web survey; 2013; Tozzi, A. E., Mingarelli, R., Agricola, E., Gonfiantini, M., Pandolfi, E., Carloni, E., Gesualdo, F.,...
- Education in the Responsible Conduct of Research in Psychology: Methods and Scope; 2013; DiLorenzo, T. A., Becker-Fiegeles, J., Gibelman, M.
- Relative Mode Effects on Data Quality in Mixed-Mode Surveys by an Instrumental Variable; 2013; Vannieuwenhuyze, J. T. A., Revilla, M.
- Reaching and Hearing the Invisible: Organizational Research on Invisible Stigmatized Groups via Web...; 2013; Trau, R. N. C., Haertel, C. E. J., Haertel, G. F.
- On-line questionnaire completion time and personality test scores; 2013; Furnham, A., Hyde, G., Trickey, G.
- Why are you leaving me?? - Personality predictors of answering drop out in an online-study; 2013; Thielsch, M., Nestler, S., Back, M.
- The association between online gaming, social phobia, and depression: an internet survey; 2012; Chen, M.-H., Huang, P.-C., Bai, Y.-M., Wei, H.-T.
- P02.04. Internet survey confirms strong interest in Yoga among fibromyalgia patients; 2012; Carson, J., Bennett, R., Jones, K., Mist, S.
- GRE® program announces big benefits and big savings for GRE® test takers worldwide; 2011
- Going online with assessment; 2011; Burke, E., Mahoney-Phillips, J., Bowler, W., Downey, K.