Data quality in telephone surveys and the effect of questionnaire length: A cross-national experiment
Year: 2010
Type: book
Abstract: In survey interviews carried out by telephone, it is possible that respondents may get tired, bored, or generally less attentive as the interview goes on.If this were the case, then answers given to questions later in the interview should be of lower quality than answers given to questions earlier in the interview.This study assesses whether we do indeed find lower quality answers when questions are asked later in an interview.The study used data from an experiment in which questionnaires of three different lengths were used.The experiment took place in Germany, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland, with interviews lasting approximately 30, 45 or 60 minutes.The questionnaires were based on the European Social Survey.The main conclusion is that we do indeed find evidence that data quality is lower when questions come later in the interview.The final section of the paper discusses some practical implications of this finding for survey designers.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2137868572