Differences Between Persons Responding and Not Responding to a Mailed Questionnaire

Reuss, Carl F.

doi:10.2307/2085805

Cited by 42 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Although a number of prior investigations have found volunteers scoring higher on tests of intelligence (Martin & Marcuse, 1957, 1958Reuss, 1943) the present study found no significant difference between volunteers and nonvolunteers on the Consulting Psychologists Press (1961) D-48 non-verbal intelligence test ( t = .94, p < .40).2 Indices of academic achievement (performance) , however, found volunteers to be lower in class standing ( t = 1.91, p < .07) and lower on the National League of Nursing test of psychiatric principles ( t = 2.92, p < .009) than nonvolunteers. This would not be inconsistent with the finding that nonvolunteers' fathers were better educated than the fathers of volunteers ( t = 3.14, p < .006).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Characteristics of Volunteers and Nonvolunteers for a Sleep and Hypnotic Experiment

Edwards¹

1968

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Characteristics of Volunteers and Nonvolunteers for a Sleep and Hypnotic Experiment

Edwards¹

1968

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

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“…Several studies have found no effect of community size on response rates (Britton & Britton, 1951;Green et al, 1993;Pavalko & Lutterman, 1973), one study found urban residents to respond at a higher rate (Roeher, 1963), and another study found residents of small towns to respond more readily than residents of cities or rural areas (Green & Stager, 1986). In contrast, five studies found rural residents to respond at a higher rate than urban residents (Dalecki et al, 1988;Ebert, 1973;Franzen & Lazarsfeld, 1945, Reuss, 1943Sirken, Pifer, & Brown, 1960). Dalecki et al (1988) found rural residents to respond earlier than urban residents whereas deJonge, van Veen, and Pooters (1977) found urban residents to respond earlier.…”

Section: Community Size/geographical Regionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Sociodemographic factors and mail survey response

Green

1996

Psychol. Mark.

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“…No significant differences in social or personality variables were fou'nd to distinguish refusers who could be persuaded (i.e., "stallers") from those who could not be. Reuss [64] reported a better response from students from rural homes. Nuckols [59] stated that mail panels seriously underrepresent low education groups and questioned whether they could ever include a representative segment of the very low educational levels.…”

Section: Studies Of Demographic and Socioeconomic Differencesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Mail Surveys and Response Rates: A Literature Review

Kanuk¹,

Berenson²

1975

Journal of Marketing Research

714

195

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Market researchers have long recognized the obvious advantages of mail questionnaire surveys. They are relatively low in cost, geographically flexible, and can reach a widely dispersed sample simultaneously without the attendant problems of interviewer access or the possible distortions of time lag. Difficult to reach respondents, such as farmers, soldiers, or busy executives, can be surveyed with relative ease [82], Businessmen and academic researchers favor mail surveys for reasons of expediency, since data can be procured more quickly, more abundantly, and more cheaply than when a personal interview is employed [46],Mail questionnaires are free from the costs and time consumption of interviewer bias or variability [7, 8, 9,17,31,41,44,70], Their relative or promised anonymity encourages respondents to freely divulge private or embarrassing or socially undesirable information [50,56,60,84], Finally, mail questionnaires tend to be more valid than either telephone or personal interviews because they enable respondents to check information by verifying their records or consulting' with other members of the family [59], and because they permit leisurely and thoughtful reply. Leslie Kanuk is Assistant Professor of Marketing and ConradBerenson is Professor of Marketing, Baruch College, City University of New York, The major disadvantages of mail surveys are generally believed to be their low response rates, with the attendant problems of response bias and nonresponse bias [1,5, 10,20,21,23,32,42,69, 78,81]. Efforts to increase the response rates to mail questionnaires are periodically reported in the literature, yet the most recent literature review appeared in a British journal back in 1961 [71], Various research reports published both before and since that time indicate that, contrary to general belief, some very high mail questionnaire response rates have been achieved.Empirical studies designed to improve the validity and reliability of mail surveys can be divided into two categories: those designed to increase response rates and those designed to reduce biases caused by nonresponse or special interest response. The reasons for this two-pronged effort are obvious. The greater the response, the more accurately it will estimate parameters in the population sampled. However, findings are representative of the population only if those people who do not respond to the questionnaire do not differ in significant ways from those who do respond. If they do differ, the kind and degree of such differences must be carefully estimated so that the findings may be properly weighted to reflect more accurately the population under study, INCREASING THE RESPONSE RATEEfforts to increase the response rate have variously been classified by timing(i.e., preliminary, concurrent, and followup efforts) and by technique (i.e., questionnaire length, size, survey sponsorship, return envelope and stamps, personalization of letter, method of reproduction, format, layout, color, anonymity, premiums or rewards, and deadline date). Methods clas...

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Differences Between Persons Responding and Not Responding to a Mailed Questionnaire

Cited by 42 publications

References 0 publications

Characteristics of Volunteers and Nonvolunteers for a Sleep and Hypnotic Experiment

Characteristics of Volunteers and Nonvolunteers for a Sleep and Hypnotic Experiment

Sociodemographic factors and mail survey response

Mail Surveys and Response Rates: A Literature Review

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