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Web Survey Bibliography

Title Personalized Feedback in Web Surveys: Does It Affect Respondent Motivation and Data Quality?
Year 2017
Access date 14.04.2017
Abstract

Relevance & Research Question: Web surveys technically allow providing personalized feedback to the respondents based on their previous responses. For instance, after collecting information about the respondent’s body weight and height, the web survey system can calculate and display the respondent’s body mass index. We argue that such personalized feedback may motivate respondents to respond more accurately in surveys. While past studies mainly concentrate on the effects of providing study results on future response rates, thus far survey research lacks theoretical and empirical contributions on the effects of personalized, immediate, feedback on response behavior. We seek to address this gap in the literature by investigating the potential advantages and disadvantages of providing personalized feedback within an online survey.

Methods & Data: We implemented a randomized trial in the context of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) in 2014, providing feedback regarding the respondents’ personality tests (Big Five Personality Inventory) to a subgroup of the sample. We assess (1) whether (the advance notice of) the feedback decreases undesired response behavior, such as item nonresponse, response styles, low reliability, socially desirable responding, or corrective answers and (2) whether the feedback affects respondent satisfaction with the survey.

Results: We found only minor effects of the advance notification of feedback on responses to the Big Five Personality Inventory. Thus, contrary to what was expected, the results do not point to an increase in data quality through the announcement of upcoming feedback. Fortunately, we also do not find evidence for manipulations and adjustments of answers after the feedback was presented to respondents. Finally, we observe a positive effect of feedback on respondent satisfaction and enjoyment with the survey.

Added Value: Our study provides unique and novel insights on how personalized feedback affects response behavior and data quality within web surveys. Further research may build upon our results by incorporating feedback for different questions and topics, varying the style of the feedback, and investigate effects on future survey participation rates.

Year of publication2017
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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Web survey bibliography - Germany (361)

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