NSF Award Abstract - #0096179

AWSFL008-DS3

Collaborative Research: Cognitive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

Abstract

The development of new methods for collecting survey data, including Web surveys, may be ushering in a golden age for self-administered surveys. The new methods of data collection appear to offer the power and complexity of computerization combined with the privacy of self-administration. At the same time, because they do not require an interviewer, they may reduce other types of survey error and could dramatically lower the costs of conducting surveys. Still, there is mounting evidence that different methods of self administration can produce different results; these differences across methods of self administration seem to reflect apparently incidental features of the interface between the respondent and the electronic questionnaire. This collaborative research with Couper (SES-9910882) tests a theory to explain these effects of the interface. The key concept in the theory is that of social presence. To the extent that the method of data collection, its setting, or the interface gives the respondent a sense of interacting with another person, it will trigger motivations similar to those triggered by an interviewer. These motivations include the desire to avoid embarrassing oneself or giving offense to someone else, as well as enhanced motivation to complete the interview. The Web offer ample resources for attracting the interest of the respondent (color, animated images), but even apparently innocuous characteristics of the interface can create a sense of social presence, producing social desirability and related response effects.

This experiment will attempt to identify the features of the interface with a Web survey that create a virtual social presence. A sample of respondents will be recruited by telephone to complete a Web survey. The experiment will vary whether or not the electronic questioner is identified by name ("Hi! I'm John") and whether or not it offers explicit reminders of prior answers. The results of this first experiment may suggest follow-up experiments to be carried out if the budget permits. The main hypothesis to be tested in any follow-up studies is that the more the interface creates a sense of social presence, the more respondents will act as if they are interacting with another human being. This research is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies under the Research on Survey Methodology Funding Opportunity.