Web Survey Bibliography
Survey non-response is one possible threat to generalizability of findings and has received considerable attention. Another possible threat to generalizability is item non-response. We were interested in developing an experimental test of various no-opinion options for evaluative tasks and comparing them with conditions which omit the no-opinion options.
Method Respondents: We had 9342 from the Harris Poll Online panel for an online survey. Procedure: Asked about grocery stores visited Assigned store to rate Rated familiarity, liking, recommendation, and likelihood to shop at store Assigned to rating format: 5 out-of-range response conditions - “Not applicable,” “Don’t know,” “Not sure,” “Not familiar with aspect,” “No opinion”, 1 non-mandatory condition, 2 forced response conditions Rated 10 aspects of store (e.g. pharmacy)
Results: The Not Applicable condition had the lowest endorsement of the out-of-range category, while the Don’t Know, Not Sure, Not Familiar, and No Opinion conditions were comparable in endorsement. Both forced response conditions were similar in their endorsement patterns, but were significantly different from the out-of-range response conditions. The forced response conditions had significantly fewer people who endorsed the top two boxes (“Excellent” and “Very Good”) but more people endorsed the bottom three boxes (“Somewhat good”, “Fair”, “Poor”). Correlational Patterns: We found that there were no significant differences between the conditions for the intercorrelations and correlations with the criteria.
Discussion: While the issue of item non-response is multi-faceted, our investigation suggests that the primary effects of allowing non-response is increased usage of the top categories of the scale with evaluative scales.
Homepage - conference (abstract)
Web survey bibliography - Thomas, R. K. (35)
- Quota Controls in Survey Research.; 2016; Gittelman, S. H.; Thomas, R. K.; Lavrakas, P. J.; Lange, V.
- Scientific Surveys Based on Incomplete Sampling Frames and High Rates of Nonresponse; 2016; Fahimi, M.; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.; Buttermore, N. R.
- On the Go: How Mobile Participants Affect Survey Results; 2015; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.
- The Matrix Lives On: Improving Grids for Online Surveys; 2015; Thomas, R. K.; Barlas, F. M.; Graham, P.; Subias, T.
- Purposefully Mobile: Experimentally Assessing Device Effects in an Online Survey ; 2015; Barlas, F. M.; Thomas, R. K.; Graham, P.
- Sub-optimal Respondent Behavior and Data Quality in Online Surveys; 2015; Thomas, R. K.
- Respondents Playing Fast and Loose?: Antecedents and Consequences of Respondent Speed of Completion; 2014; Thomas, R. K., Barlas, F. M.
- Alone in a Group: Comparison of Effects of a Group-Administered Paper-Pencil Survey Versus an Individually...; 2013; Higgins, W. B., Barlas, F. M., Pflieger, J., Thomas, R. K., Jeffery, D., Mattiko, M.
- Watch Your Language!: The Impact of the Survey Language on Bilingual Hispanics’ Response Process...; 2013; Ay, M., Gross, W., Cobb, C. L., Thomas, R. K.
- Changing of the Guard: Effects of Different Self-Administered Survey Modes on Sensitive Questions; 2013; Barlas, F. M., Higgins, W. B., Pflieger, J., Thomas, R. K., Jeffery, D., Mattiko, M.
- Response Format Effects in the Measurement of Employment; 2013; Rodkin, S., Thomas, R. K., Subias, S., Chu, C.
- Impact of Filter Questions on Estimates of Media Consumption; 2013; Cobb, C. L., Godinez, D., Thomas, R. K., Baim, J.
- Effects of Response Format on Measurement of Readership; 2013; Thomas, R. K., Cobb, C. L., Baim, J.
- A Shot in the Dark: Measurement Influence on Likelihood to Vaccination; 2012; Higgins, W. B., Thomas, R. K.
- Response Anchoring and Polarity Effects on Endorsement and Response Patterns; 2012; Higgins, W. B., Thomas, R. K.
- I Got a Feeling: Comparison of Feeling Thermometers with Verbally Labeled Scales in Attitude Measurement...; 2012; Thomas, R. K., Bremer, J.
- The River Flows: Comparison of Experimental Effect Replicability with Different Sample Sources; 2012; Thomas, R. K.
- How Likely?: Comparisons of Behavioral Intention Measurement Validity; 2012; Bremer, J., Thomas, R. K.
- Cross-country Comparisons: Effects of Scale Type and Response Style Differences; 2011; Thomas, R. K.
- A Comparison of Branching Response Formats with Single Response Formats; 2011; Thomas, R. K.
- An Injured Party?: A Comparison of Political Party Response Formats in Party Identification.; 2011; Schwarz, S., Barlas, F. M., Thomas, R. K., Corso, R. A., Szoc, R.
- Response format effects on measurement of employment; 2009; Thomas, R. K., Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D.
- Response Formats in Cross-cultural Comparisons in Web-based Surveys; 2009; Thomas, R. K.l, Terhanian, G., Funke, F.
- Comparing Adolescent Response Bias Between Internet and Telephone Surveys ; 2009; Klein, J. D., Graff Havens, C., Thomas, R. K.
- Parallel Phone and Web-based Interviews: Effects of Sample and Weighting on Comparability and Validity...; 2008; Thomas, R. K., Krane, D., Taylor, H., Terhanian, G.
- Response Non-Differentiation and Response Styles in Web-Based Studies: Causes and Consequences ; 2008; Frisina, L. T., Thomas, R. K.
- Truth in measurement: Comparing Web Based interviewing Techniques; 2007; Couper, M. P., Terhanian, G., Bremer, J., Thomas, R. K.
- Behavioral self-report measures. International extensions; 2006; Thomas, R. K., Klein, J. D.
- Merely Incidental?: Effects of Response Format on Self-reported Behavior; 2006; Thomas, R. K., Klein, J. D.
- Rating versus comparative trade-off measures. Trending changes in political issues across time and predictive...; 2005; Thomas, R. K., Behnke, S., Johnson, Al., Sanders, M.
- On the primacy of affect in attitude-behavior research; 2004; Thomas, R. K., Schofield, C. M.
- It's Only Incidental: Effects of Response Format in Determining Behavioral or Event Occurrence; 2003; Lafond, C. R., Smith, M. R., Behnke, C. S., Thomas, R. K.
- Can What We Don’t Know (about “Don’t Know”) Hurt Us?: Effects of Item Non-response...; 2003; Krosnick, J. A., Behnke, C. S., Lafond, C. R., Thomas, R. K.
- Model of behavioral intention. A two-factor motivational model of behavioral intention; 2000; Thomas, R. K.
- Factors affecting measurement stability. More is not necessarily better: Effects of number of items...; 1999; Thomas, R. K.