The Science of Web Surveys

Tourangeau, Roger; Conrad, Frederick G.; Couper, Mick P.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747047.001.0001

Cited by 304 publications

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“…This expectation is underpinned by the use of a common response scale. Experimental research also has shown that in many instances, respondents need more time to answer the same questions when each question is placed on a separate survey page instead of being grouped together on one or two pages (Tourangeau, Conrad, & Couper, 2013). Hence, we expect that the more cognitively demanding questions a survey includes, the longer the respondents will need to complete the survey (Hypothesis 1).…”

Section: Explaining Interview Durationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Explaining Interview Duration in Web Surveys

Gummer

Roβmann

2014

Social Science Computer Review

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Interview duration is an important variable in web surveys because it is a direct measure of the response burden. In this article, we analyze the effects of the survey design, respondent characteristics, and the interaction between these effects on interview duration. For that purpose, we applied multilevel analysis to a data set of 21 web surveys on political attitudes and behavior. Our results showed that factors on both levels, the individual and the survey level, had effects on interview duration. However, the larger share of the variation in interview duration is explained by the characteristics of the respondents. In this respect, we illustrate the impact of mobile devices and panel recruitment on interview duration. In addition, we found important relationships between the respondents' attitudes and how a web survey is designed: Highly motivated respondents spent significantly more time answering cognitively demanding questions than less motivated respondents. When planning a survey, not only the number and formats of questions need to be taken into account but also the expected sample composition and how the participants will respond to the design of the web survey.

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Section: Explaining Interview Durationmentioning

confidence: 96%

Explaining Interview Duration in Web Surveys

Gummer

Roβmann

2014

Social Science Computer Review

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“…With IRB permission, we did not identify ourselves as researchers and instead posed, like our respondents, as ordinary citizens. Since information in our archive appears to indicate that government monitoring of 50c party member activities occur only through voluntary self-reporting up the chain of command, our survey questions and the responses are effectively anonymous, which are conditions that have been shown to make respondents more sincere in responding to sensitive questions (Tourangeau et al 2013).…”

Section: Verification By Direct Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument

2017

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INTRODUCTION Social media in China appears as vibrant and extensive as in any Western country, with more than 1,300 social media companies and websites, and millions of posts authored every day by people all over the country. At the same time, the Chinese regime imposes extensive and varied controls over of the entire system (Brady 2009;Cairns and Carlson 2016;Knockel et al. 2015;MacKinnon 2012;Ng 2015;Shirk 2011;Stockmann 2013;Stockmann and Gallagher 2011;Yang 2009). Which social media companies are prevented from operating in China is easy to see (the so-called Great Firewall of China), and the scholarly literature now offers considerable evidence on how and why Gary King is Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, 1737 Cambridge St., Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138; GaryKing.org (King@Harvard.edu).Jennifer Pan is Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, 450 Serra Mall, Building 120, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94304; jenpan.com (jp1@stanford.edu).Margaret E. Roberts is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, Social Sciences Building 301, 9500 Gilman Dr., #0521, La Jolla, CA 92093-0521; MargaretRoberts.net (meroberts@ucsd.edu).Our thanks to Neel Guha, Peter Dyrud, Yingjie Fan, and many others for superb research assistance; Danielle Allen, Peter Bol, Becky Fair, Chase Harrison, Iain Johnston, Franziska Keller, Blake Miller, Jean Oi, Samantha Ravich, Brandon Stewart, Daniela Stockmann, Andy Walder, Yuhua Wang, Chaodan Zheng, and Yun Zhu for helpful comments; and DARPA (contract W31P4Q-13-C-0055/983-3) and the National Science Foundation (grant 1500086) for research support. Authors are listed alphabetically. Data and information necessary to replicate the results in this article appear in King et al. (2017).Received: August 26, 2016; revised: November 6, 2016; accepted: April 11, 2017. they censor certain individual social media posts that have appeared on the web or filter them out before appearing. In both cases, the censorship apparatus allows a great deal of criticism of the regime, its officials, and their policies (which can be useful information for the central government in managing local leaders) but stops discussions that can generate collective action on the ground . 1According to numerous speculations by scholars, activists, journalists, officials in other governments, and participants in social media, the Chinese regime also conducts "astroturfing," or what we might call reverse censorship, surreptitiously posting large numbers of fabricated social media comments as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary Chinese people. The people hired for this purpose are known formally as Internet commentators ( ), although more widely as 50c party members ( ), so called because they are rumored to be paid 50 cents (5 jiao, , or about $0.08) to write and post each comment (Tong and Lei 2013). We show that this rumor turns out to be incorrect; however, we adopt this widely used ter...

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“…The main advantage of computer assisted web interviewing (CAWI), compared to other modes of data collection, is time and cost efficiency (Dillman 2000;Tourangeau et al 2013). CAWI proponents also cite audio-visual options (Tourangeau 2004) and the ability to contact both remote populations and specific subpopulations as advantages (Wright 2005).…”

Section: Table 1 About Herementioning

confidence: 99%

Response Error in a Web Survey and a Mailed Questionnaire: The Role of Cognitive Functioning

et al. 2016

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Web-based interviewing is gradually replacing traditional modes of data collection, in particular telephone and mailed surveys. This global trend takes place despite the fact that established knowledge of its consequences on response error is incomplete. This paper studies differences between a web (CAWI) and a mailed version (MAIL) of a questionnaire in various forms of response error, namely item nonresponse, satisficing, person-reliability, and social desirable responding. We posit 1) that response error depends on respondents cognitive functioning, namely in the domains of global reading abilities, fluid intelligence, as well as working and episodic memory; and 2) that these effects differ across modes of data collection with generally higher prevalence in the CAWI mode since this mode is more demanding. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may The analysis builds on a randomized mode experiment implemented in the context of the BerlinAging Study II (BASE-II), a survey that primarily focuses on multidimensional processes of physical and mental aging (see Bertram et al. 2014). The analysis reveals a high impact of cognitive functioning at the various stages of the survey response process. While we do found moderate mode-differences in response error, such as higher item nonresponse rates in the CAWI mode, we did not find cognitive functioning to be a better predictor of response error in webbased interviewing.Keywords: Mixed-mode design, CAWI, cognitive functioning, response quality 3 MotivationOngoing technological advancement is reflected in the dominant modes of data collection in surveys. In face-to-face settings, computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) is gradually replacing paper-and-pencil personal interviewing (PAPI), while in self-administered interviews, web-based formats (CAWI) are increasingly replacing mailed questionnaires. In many countries, web-based interviewing has become a critically important mode of data collection in social and market research in only 10 years' time (see Table 1 for the German case). Table 1 With the purpose of analysing this CAWI mode effect, we decided to compare CAWI with another self-administered questionnaire. Although the comparison with the face-to-face mode 4 seems useful given that this mode still represents the mainly used mode in surveys, it nevertheless differs strongly from self-administered questionnaires both in terms of costs and interviewer assistance. Therefore we decided to compare the CA...

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The Science of Web Surveys

Cited by 304 publications

References 0 publications

Explaining Interview Duration in Web Surveys

Explaining Interview Duration in Web Surveys

How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument

Response Error in a Web Survey and a Mailed Questionnaire: The Role of Cognitive Functioning

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