The effect of interviewer evaluation of respondents’ attitudes and understanding on future survey participation in a panel study

This study explored whether the interviewers’ judgments of respondents’ performances in an initial survey can predict survey participation for a second survey among the same group of respondents in a panel study. Specifically, this study examined two interviewer variables: the interviewers’ judgments of (1) the respondents’ understanding of survey questions and (2) the respondents’ attitudes toward the survey. The analyses revealed that respondents who were rated to have an excellent understanding of the survey questions and friendly attitudes were more likely to respond to the second interview request than those with a poor understanding and unfriendly attitudes, after controlling for the characteristics of the respondents. Of these two, the judgment of the respondents’ attitudes was a stronger predictor. However, interviewer’s judgments are not correlated with the primary survey outcome or the data quality. This suggests limited value of the interviewer observation.     

Interviewer Effect in a Survey of Drinking Practices*

This study investigates the relationship of interviewer characteristics to the responses of their interviewees in a survey in a relatively sensitive area—drinking practices. Generally, respondents seem to have reacted to easily ascertainable characteristics of the interviewers, such as sex, status (as measured by education, occupation, and clothing), and religion. The attitudes of the interviewer toward his interviewing were also related to respondents' reported drinking. It is concluded that interviewing is a social relationship of brief duration in which the respondent's performance reflects norms that tend to emerge based on the information each of the participants is able to learn about the other.     

Gender attitudes in the Arab region – The role of framing and priming effects

Most evidence on survey response effects is based in the Western world. We use data from two randomized experiments built into a nation-wide representative household survey in Tunisia to analyze the effects of framing and priming on responses to gender attitudes in the Arab context. Our first experiment shows that questions on attitudes towards decision-making power when framed in an equality frame reduce responses in favor of gender inequality. In our second experiment we find that responses to attitudes towards domestic violence are susceptible to an audio primer. Oral statistical information about the incidence of domestic violence in Tunisia increases disapproval of domestic violence among the male subsample further, but does not affect women. In terms of impact heterogeneity, we find mixed results for treatment interventions interacting with the gender of the interviewer and the interviewer’s perceived religiosity.     

SurveyMotion: what can we learn from sensor data about respondents’ completion and response behavior in mobile web surveys?

Participation in web surveys via smartphones increased continuously in recent years. The reasons for this increase are a growing proportion of smartphone owners and an increase in mobile Internet access. However, research has shown that smartphone respondents are frequently distracted and/or multitasking, which might affect completion and response behavior in a negative way. We propose ‘SurveyMotion (SMotion)’, a JavaScript-based tool for mobile devices that can gather information about respondents’ motions during web survey completion by using sensor data. Specifically, we collect data about the total acceleration (TA) of smartphones. We conducted a lab experiment and varied the form of survey completion (e.g. standing or walking). Furthermore, we employed questions with different response formats (e.g. radio buttons and sliders) and measured response times. The results reveal that SMotion detects higher TAs of smartphones for respondents with comparatively higher motion levels. In addition, respondents’ motion level affects response times and the quality of responses given. The SMotion tool promotes the exploration of how respondents complete mobile web surveys and could be employed to understand how future mobile web surveys are completed.     

Democracy denied,youth participation and criminalizing digital dissent

Attention is given in this article to recent action by many liberal states to regulate and criminalize certain forms of political dissent reliant on new media. I ask how those working in the fields of youth studies and social science more generally might understand such processes of criminalizing political dissent involving young people digital media. I do this mindful of the prevailing concern about a ‘crisis in democracy’ said to be evident in the withdrawal by many young people from traditional forms of political engagement, and the need to encourage greater youth participation in democratic practices. A heuristic or guiding frame is developed to analyse how new laws, amendments to existing laws and other regulatory practices are being implemented to contain certain forms of political participation, performed in large part by young people. A case study of ‘Distributed Denial of Service action’ is offered to examine government responses to political practices which I argue constitute legitimate forms of protest and civil disobedience.     

INTERVIEWER GENDER AND GENDER ATTITUDES

This research addresses the effects of interviewer gender onresponses to a broad array of gender-related survey questions,using data from a probability sample of adults in the UnitedStates. We focus on whether gender-of-interviewer effects areevident, whether they vary by respondent gender, and whetherthey vary across several attitudinal domains relevant to genderinequality. While many items do not show statistically significantgender-of-interviewer effects, we document significant effectsacross a variety of items. When such effects are evident, theytend to involve both male and female respondents expressingmore egalitarian gender-related attitudes or greater criticismof existing gender inequalities to female interviewers. Malerespondents offer significantly different responses to maleand female interviewers on questions dealing with gender inequalityin employment. For female respondents, interviewer-gender effectsare evident for items addressing gender-related collective action,policy, and group interests. Using multivariate models thatallow us to represent both respondent-level and interviewer-levelvariables, we find that interviewer-gender effects are statisticallysignificant in most attitudinal domains but that the interactionbetween interviewer gender and respondent gender does not tendto be statistically significant. We consider the implicationsof these findings both for understanding the survey processand for understanding gender relations more generally.     

The impact of touch‐tone data entry on reports of HIV and STD risk behaviors in telephone interviews

Respondents’ concerns about privacy can decrease reporting of HIV and STD risk behaviors in general population telephone surveys. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of an experimental study evaluating whether one method for increasing privacy, touch‐tone data entry (TTDE), is effective in increasing estimates of sexual behaviors from a population‐based survey. We conducted a random‐digit‐dial telephone survey of adults in New Jersey (n = 405), with half the respondents using TTDE for answering sexual behavior questions. TTDE led to increased reports of same‐sex sexual behavior, certain HIV and STD risk factors, and concern about one's risk for HIV and STD transmission. TTDE also narrowed the difference between men's and women's reports of the number of different sexual partners over the past 10 years. The feasibility and limitations of TTDE are discussed, along with possible alternative interpretations that consider the impact of TTDE on the dynamics of the interaction between the respondent and the interviewer.     

Variation within households in consent to link survey data to administrative records: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

This study expands our knowledge of consent in linking survey and administrative data by studying respondents’ behaviour when consenting to link their own records and when consenting to link those of their children. It develops and tests a number of hypothesised mechanisms of consent, some of which were not explored in the past. The hypotheses cover: parental pride, privacy concerns, loyalty to the survey, pre-existing relations with the agency holding the data, and interviewer effects. The study uses data from the longitudinal Millennium Cohort Study to analyse the correlates of consent in multiple domains (i.e. linkage of education, health and economic records). The findings show that respondent’s behaviour vary depending on the consent domain and on the person within the household for whom consent is sought. In particular, the cohort member’s cognitive skills and the main respondent’s privacy concerns have differential effects on consent. On the other hand, loyalty to the survey proxied by the longitudinal response history has a significant and strong impact on consent irrespective of the outcome. The findings also show that interviewers account for a large proportion of variations in consent even after controlling for the characteristics of the interviewer’s assignment area. In total, it is possible to conclude that the significant impact of some of the correlates will lead to sample bias which needs to be accounted for when working with linked survey and administrative data.     

当代法国青年人政治参与的特征及影响因素

政治行为与参与特征往往受特定社会形态的影响。今天的法国青年人对体制内参与渠道的认同感大大降低,日益疏离于政治投票及政党、工会生活,转而采用其他更直接更符合个人意愿的政治参与方式。但这种变化并不能说明代议制民主在青年人那里遭遇到认同危机,它实际上反映了青年人对传统政治参与方式有效性的理性反思,是一种对公民政治生活方式的创新与重构,尽管在这个过程中,因为个人经历、社会经济状况、受教育程度的差异会不同程度地影响到他们的政治态度和参与方式及参与度。     

Employees as information influencers of organization’s CSR practices: The impacts of employee words on public perceptions of CSR

This study investigates the impact of employees’ words about their organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on external publics’ attitudes and behaviors toward the organization. Specifically, it examines how the valence (positive vs. negative) of employees’ words regarding a CSR campaign interacts with the type of channel (face-to-face vs. social media) of employees’ communication behaviors, and how these factors affect external publics’ perceived authenticity of the organization’s CSR, corporate attitudes, and purchasing intentions, respectively. An online experiment among 221 general consumers in the United States was conducted. The results demonstrated that negative messages regarding CSR distributed by employees in face-to-face communication decreased publics’ favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions to a greater extent than that distributed via social media (i.e., Facebook). However, the effect of communication channel became insignificant when positive messages regarding CSR were shared by employees. The results further showed that perceived authenticity mediated the effects of channel and message valence on publics’ attitudes and behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for CSR practices and employee communication are discussed.     

Eye-tracking methodology: exploring the processing of question formats in web surveys

In social research, the use of agree/disagree (A/D) questions is a popular method for measuring attitudes. Research has shown that A/D questions require complex cognitive processing and are susceptible to response bias. Thus, some researchers recommend the use of item-specific (IS) questions. This study examines the processing of A/D and IS questions, using eye-tracking methodology. By recording respondents’ eye movements, how respondents process survey questions can be evaluated. The results reveal that IS questions cause more and longer fixations. However, this only applies to the response categories. There are no differences regarding the question stems. Altogether, it seems that IS response categories trigger deeper cognitive processing than A/D response categories.     

What was I thinking? A theoretical framework for analysing panel conditioning in attitudes and (response) behaviour

Though panel data are increasingly used in the social sciences, the question whether repeatedly participating in a panel survey affects respondents’ attitudes and (response) behaviour is still largely unsolved. Drawing on a model of associative networks that is extended by assumptions on survey satisficing, we present a theoretical framework that emphasizes the role of strength-related attributes of attitudes (accessibility, internal consistency, extremity) and motivation in respondents’ information processing. In particular, we argue that – depending on respondents’ predispositions – occupation with survey questions enhances attitude strength, which results in increasing attitude stability and influence on thoughts and behaviours. Against this background, we bring together hitherto unconnected results from previous research and thus contribute to a more thorough understanding of both the mechanisms and the multifaceted outcomes of panel conditioning.     

Social media use and democratic engagement: a comparative study of Hong Kong,Taiwan, and China

Recent studies in political communication have found a generally positive role of social media in democratic engagement. However, most research on youth’s social media use in relation to their political engagement has been conducted in the context of American and European democracies. This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the effects of the uses and structural features of social media on democratic engagement in three different Asian political systems: Taiwan (young liberal democracy); Hong Kong (partial democracy); and China (one-party state). The findings showed that sharing political information and connections with public actors consistently predicted offline participation (i.e., civic and political participation) and online participation (i.e., online political expression and online activism) in the three political systems. Although social media use for news, network size, and network structure did not consistently predict political outcomes, they played significant roles in influencing different engagement in the three political systems. The comparative approach used in this study helped to demonstrate the role of social media in the democratic engagement of youth in three places with similar cultures but different political contexts.     

Silencing the Call to Action: A Bird’s Eye View of Minority Language Media and Political Participation in Eurasia

Do citizens living in linguistically diverse countries without benefit of diverse media outlets find this to be a barrier to civic engagement? This study considers the interrelated effects of media access and social capital on political engagement in 15 Eurasian countries as that region continues to transition to an open economy and democracy. Drawing upon individual-level survey data, and controlling for relevant political and socioeconomic factors, regression analyses suggest a significant impact of media plurality, interpersonal trust, and government confidence on both voting turnout and unconventional political participation. The effect of social capital is mixed. Results indicate that higher levels of trust contribute to participation, while greater confidence in government is associated with less participation. These preliminary tests also show that collective action is generally lower in countries having greater linguistic diversity, but suggest that having access to political news in one’s own language can indeed contribute to more activism.     

Race-of-interviewer effects and survey questions about police violence

ABSTRACT

This research uses binary logistic regression to test for a connection between the race of interviewer and race of respondent on five questions in the General Social Survey about the use of physical force by the police. Results indicate two instances of race-of-interviewer effect: (1) black respondents were more likely to voice disapproval about whether the police can strike a citizen trying to escape when speaking to a black interviewer, and (2) white respondents were less likely to voice approval of police striking an adult male citizen in the presence of a black interviewer. Secondary findings indicate that education is consistently significant regardless of race of respondent and the survey question, while social class, sex, age, and region are significant in only limited scenarios.     

Intersectionality and Engagement among the LGBTQ+ Community

ABSTRACT

As the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community makes progress toward attaining equal rights, a growing body of scholarly attention is focusing on this increasingly visible minority group. Yet studies of attitudes among LGBTQ+ Americans themselves remain limited because of small sample sizes and scarce data. As a result, scholarly work on LGBTQ+ issues is almost entirely devoted to measuring straight America’s opinions. In this study we administer both a survey and an experiment to a sample of LGBTQ+ Americans. Our findings are twofold. First, we demonstrate that intersectionality has important effects on attitudes within the LGBTQ+ community. Specifically, LGBTQ+ respondents who are at the intersection of multiple minority groups display lower levels of political engagement. Second, we test the mobilizing influence of out-group versus in-group cues on LGBTQ+ Americans. In line with previous work, we find that government action to support a threatening out-group engages LGBTQ+ Americans to support in-group candidates, whereas government action to support their own in-group has a significantly smaller effect. These findings help us to understand an increasingly politically active subset of the electorate and, more broadly, shed light on the influence of intersectionality on political attitudes.     

Consequences of reducing nonresponse in a national telephone survey

Critics of public opinion polls often claim that methodological shortcuts taken to collect timely data produce biased results. This study compares two random digit dial national telephone surveys that used identical questionnaires but very different levels of effort: a "Standard" survey conducted over a 5-day period that used a sample of adults who were home when the interviewer called, and a "Rigorous" survey conducted over an 8-week period that used random selection from among all adult household members. Response rates, computed according to AAPOR guidelines, were 60.6 percent for the Rigorous and 36.0 percent for the Standard study. Nonetheless, the two surveys produced similar results. Across 91 comparisons, no difference exceeded 9 percentage points, and the average difference was about 2 percentage points. Most of the statistically significant differences were among demographic items. Very few significant differences were found on attention to media and engagement in politics, social trust and connectedness, and most social and political attitudes, including even those toward surveys.     

Neutralizing the political threat of the marginal woman: Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women

One might expect lesbian and bisexual women to form a strong alliance because of their common marginalization in a heterosexist and sexist society. But previous research has shown that tension exists between lesbian and bisexual women and that some segments of the lesbian community consider bisexuality a threat to lesbian politics. In this article I report data on beliefs about bisexual women gathered from 346 self‐identified lesbians via self‐administered questionnaires and discuss the relationship between lesbian and bisexual women as a special case of intergroup relations. Most lesbian respondents believed that bisexual identity is more likely than lesbian identity to be a phase or a way of denying one's true sexuality and that bisexual women are less personally and politically loyal and more willing and able to pass as heterosexual than are lesbians. Lesbians’ beliefs about bisexual women were uncorrelated with demographics, but lesbians who reported having some heterosexual feelings were less inclined to hold derogatory beliefs about bisexual women than were lesbians whose feelings were exclusively homosexual. On the basis of intergroup relations theory, I argue that lesbian‐bisexual relations are in the “amicable consensus” stage of political development (Jackman & Senter, 1983) and that lesbians’ attitudes are likely to change as the nascent bisexual political movement grows in strength. Methodological issues pertaining to the measurement of lesbians’ attitudes toward sexuality, including the reactivity of these attitudes to various measurement strategies, are discussed.     

Connecting young adults to democracy via government social network sites

Young adults’ increasing disconnection with public affairs and heavy reliance on social media for political communication suggest a strategic use of social network sites (SNS) by the government to foster relationships with young citizens and to improve their citizenship. However, scholars and practitioners have not reached consensus about the exact influence of individuals’ experience with government SNS. Focusing on young eligible voters, this study proposes and tests a conceptual model that measures the perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes of public engagement with government agencies on SNS. Specifically, the findings revealed a positive influence of government SNS engagement on perceived government transparency, perceived political efficacy, and public participation but to varying degrees depending on the government level (e.g., federal, state, and local). This study suggests that there is limited influence of public engagement on the perceived government-citizen relationship quality through SNS. This empirical research demonstrates how a contextualized investigation of public engagement and relationship management provides insights into the role that SNS can play in connecting young adults to democracy.