IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ese/iserwp/2010-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Data quality in telephone surveys and the effect of questionnaire length: a cross- national experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Lynn, Peter
  • Roberts, Caroline
  • Allum, Nick
  • Eva, Gillian

Abstract

Respondents in long telephone survey interviews may adopt satisficing strategies as they approach the end of the questionnaire (Holbrook, Green and Krosnick, 2003). However, there is inconsistency regarding the relationship between questionnaire length and different forms of satisficing. We investigate whether long questionnaires are associated with a reduction in response quality using data from a cross-national survey experiment. Sample members were randomly assigned to interviews of 60, 45 or 30 minutes. We compare responses to attitudinal measures from a module on happiness and well-being, which was asked at different points in the interview in each of the three groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Lynn, Peter & Roberts, Caroline & Allum, Nick & Eva, Gillian, 2010. "Data quality in telephone surveys and the effect of questionnaire length: a cross- national experiment," ISER Working Paper Series 2010-36, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2010-36
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/files/working-papers/iser/2010-36.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lynn, Peter & Jäckle, Annette & Roberts, Caroline, 2006. "Telephone versus face-to-face interviewing: mode effects on data quality and likely causes: report on phase II of the ESS-Gallup mixed mode methodology project," ISER Working Paper Series 2006-41, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ambler, Kate & Herskowitz, Sylvan & Maredia, Mywish K., 2021. "Are we done yet? Response fatigue and rural livelihoods," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Lynn, Peter, 2013. "Longer interviews may not affect subsequent survey participation propensity," Understanding Society Working Paper Series 2013-07, Understanding Society at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    3. Abate, Gashaw T. & de Brauw, Alan & Hirvonen, Kalle & Wolle, Abdulazize, 2023. "Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    4. Andrew Dabalen & Alvin Etang & Johannes Hoogeveen & Elvis Mushi & Youdi Schipper & Johannes von Engelhardt, 2016. "Mobile Phone Panel Surveys in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 24595, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. P. Couper, Mick & Cernat, Alexandru & Beth Ofstedal, Mary, 2015. "Estimation of mode effects in the Health and Retirement Study using measurement models," ISER Working Paper Series 2015-19, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    2. Vidal Díaz de Rada, 2011. "Face-to-face versus telephone surveys on political attitudes: a comparative analysis," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 817-827, June.
    3. Annette Jäckle & Caroline Roberts & Peter Lynn, 2010. "Assessing the Effect of Data Collection Mode on Measurement," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 78(1), pages 3-20, April.
    4. Cernat, Alexandru, 2013. "The impact of mixing modes on reliability in longitudinal studies," ISER Working Paper Series 2013-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Lynn, Peter & Kaminska, Olena, 2011. "The impact of mobile phones on survey measurement error," ISER Working Paper Series 2011-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    6. Lindhjem, Henrik & Navrud, Ståle, 2010. "Can cheap panel-based internet surveys substitute costly in-person interviews in CV surveys?," MPRA Paper 24069, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ehsan Ullah Khan, 2011. "Commentary on Symptom Experience of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) Patients," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 20(2), pages 135-143, May.
    8. Alexandru Cernat, 2015. "The Impact of Mixing Modes on Reliability in Longitudinal Studies," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 44(3), pages 427-457, August.
    9. Jäckle, Annette & Roberts, Caroline, 2012. "Causes of mode effects: separating out interviewer and stimulus effects in comparisons of face-to-face and telephone surveys," ISER Working Paper Series 2012-27, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    10. Nathalie Greenan & Edward Lorenz & Stephen Allan & Thomas Amossé & Daniele Archiburgi & Anthony Arundel & Eva Bejerot & Lutz Bellmann & Sophie Bressé & Adam Coutts & Peter Csizmadia & Peter Ester & Jo, 2010. "The MEADOW Guidelines," Post-Print halshs-01362486, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2010-36. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jonathan Nears (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcessuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.