{"title":"The Effects of Framing the Survey Request and Using Targeted Appeals on Participation in Cross-sectional Surveys","authors":"H. Einarsson, A. Cernat, N. Shlomo","doi":"10.1177/1525822x231188593","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The presentation of survey requests represents an easily modifiable feature of survey communications that can in some contexts affect response propensities. Here, we examine how two features: the framing of the participation request (informed by prospect theory) and the inclusion of targeted appeals based on demographic background (age or electoral district), affect participation rates in the 2021 Icelandic National Election Study, a mixed-mode cross-sectional survey. We find that these features generally fail to affect response propensities and sample composition. However, framed requests produced marginally higher response rates for a subset of the sample that was invited to complete the survey online. This suggests that modifying the presentation of the survey request may be less effective in cross-sectional surveys than in longitudinal ones, where more information is available to inform the content of targeted messages.","PeriodicalId":48060,"journal":{"name":"Field Methods","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Field Methods","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x231188593","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The presentation of survey requests represents an easily modifiable feature of survey communications that can in some contexts affect response propensities. Here, we examine how two features: the framing of the participation request (informed by prospect theory) and the inclusion of targeted appeals based on demographic background (age or electoral district), affect participation rates in the 2021 Icelandic National Election Study, a mixed-mode cross-sectional survey. We find that these features generally fail to affect response propensities and sample composition. However, framed requests produced marginally higher response rates for a subset of the sample that was invited to complete the survey online. This suggests that modifying the presentation of the survey request may be less effective in cross-sectional surveys than in longitudinal ones, where more information is available to inform the content of targeted messages.
期刊介绍:
Field Methods (formerly Cultural Anthropology Methods) is devoted to articles about the methods used by field wzorkers in the social and behavioral sciences and humanities for the collection, management, and analysis data about human thought and/or human behavior in the natural world. Articles should focus on innovations and issues in the methods used, rather than on the reporting of research or theoretical/epistemological questions about research. High-quality articles using qualitative and quantitative methods-- from scientific or interpretative traditions-- dealing with data collection and analysis in applied and scholarly research from writers in the social sciences, humanities, and related professions are all welcome in the pages of the journal.