Abstract. Social researchers increasingly survey children and young adolescents. They are convinced that information about perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors of children should be collected from the children themselves. Methodological expertise on surveying children is still scarce, and researchers rely on ad-hoc knowledge from fields such as child psychiatry and educational testing, or on methodological knowledge on surveying adults. Regarding adults, empirical evidence shows that respondent characteristics (cognitive abilities) as well as question characteristics (question difficulty) affect response quality.This study reports on a methodological survey experiment on the effect of negatively formulated questions, the number of response options and offering a neutral midpoint as response option question characteristics on the reliability of the responses, using children and young adolescents as respondents.The study shows no effects of negatively formulated questions on the reliability measures, although children respond consistently differently on negatively formulated questions than on positively formulated questions. Taking all results on the effects of number of response options and offering a neutral midpoints on the different reliability measures into consideration; it would appear that offering about four response options is optimal with children as respondents.

This study examined the effect of adding cognitive and affective illustrations to online health information (vs. text only) on older adults' website satisfaction and recall of cancer-related information. Results of an online experiment among younger and older adults showed that illustrations increased satisfaction with attractiveness of the website. Younger adults were significantly more satisfied with the comprehensibility of the website than older adults, whereas older adults were more satisfied with perceived emotional support from the website than younger adults. Being more emotionally satisfied with the website led to greater recall of information for older adults, but not for younger adults. Illustrations can be used to enhance older adults' website satisfaction and consequently recall of online cancer-related information.

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• Charitable organisations, which support research on serious diseases such as cancer, heart diseases or rheumatism, are to a considerable extent dependent on bequests. Because in the Netherlands, in the next decade, the number of deaths per year is expected to increase at a faster rate than the population growth, it is likely that in the future bequests, there will be an even larger source of income. This paper examines the psychological motives that determine the propensity to include a health-related charitable organisation in the will. Qualitative research by Schervish and Havens (2003) suggested that empathy for the suffering of others is the most important explanatory variable for leaving a bequest to charity. This result is examined and confirmed in a quantitative study by estimating a structural model that shows how other explanatory variables are mediated by empathy. Empathy is positively influenced by appeal of the charitable organisation, lack of family need, altruism and gratitude. Independent from empathy, generativity and personal experience with disease contribute to donations by bequests.

Dirk Sikkelis a Statistician and Market Researcher. He has worked for different market research agencies and as a professor in methodology. During the last 12 years, he has specialized in marketing to older consumers. Currently, he is a Professor at the University of Amsterdam in the department of communication sciences and has his own company Sixtat.Correspondence: Dirk Sikkel, Sixtat, Schout van Eijklaan 98, Leidschendam, 2262 XV, The Netherlands E-mail: d.sikkel@sixtat.nl ABSTRACT The relationship between age and the importance of brand relation is investigated. In a first exploratory survey, this relation appeared to be U-shaped. Brand relations are relatively strong for both consumers under 30 and those over 60. In a second survey, a theory-based explanation is sought as to why the importance of brand relation increases with age over 50. The answer lies in a decreased tolerance of ambiguity, consistent with low cognitive-affective complexity. Given hedonic innovativeness and future time perspective, the relation between age and brand relation becomes stronger. The results imply that brands should communicate to older consumers: 'we have a long future together, our new products are attractive and we don't take you out of your comfort zone'.

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