Attitudes Toward Surveys, Attitude Accessibility and the Effect on Respondents’ Susceptibility to Nonresponse

Abstract

Abstract. This paper analyzes whether respondents' attitudes toward surveys explains their susceptibility to item nonresponse. In contrast to previous studies, the decision to refuse to provide income information, not to answer other questions and the probability of 'don't know' responses is tested separately. Furthermore, the interviewers' overall judgments of response willingness was included as well. Respondents with a positive and cognitively accessible attitude toward surveys were expected to adopt a cooperative orientation and were thus deemed more likely to answer difficult as well as sensitive questions. Attitudes were measured with a 16-item instrument and the response latencies were used as an indicator for attitude accessibility. We found that respondents with more favorable evaluations of surveys had lower values on all kinds of nonresponse indicators. Except for the strong effect on the prevalence of don't knows, survey attitudes were increasingly more predictive for all other aspects of nonresponse when these attitude answers were faster and thus cognitively more accessible. This accessibility, and thus how relevant survey attitudes are for nonresponse, was found to increase with the subjects' exposure to surveys in the past.

Panel Attrition

“…Panel commitment and fatigue can also be measured more directly by asking respondents' attitude toward the panel survey (Rogelberg et al 2001;Stocké 2006). Whether a respondent attributes ''value'' to his or her own answers or ''enjoys'' it indicate that commitment is present.…”

The Impact of Personality on Participation Decisions in Surveys

“…Closeness to the LISS panel and attitudes towards surveys are included in the analysis as control variables because Stocké (2006) mentions the impact of sample persons' survey attitudes on the willingness to participate and item nonresponse. Concerning item nonresponse, Stocké (2006: 283) found that "attitudes alone were not a statistically significant predictor for nonresponse", but under the circumstance that "response latencies and thus the accessibility of the attitude answers were additionally taken into account".…”

“…For each subscale, I summarise the corresponding three items in an additive scale after having recoded reversed coded items. 75 One item of each subscale ("Surveys are interesting in themselves", "Surveys are important for society", "It is exhaustive to answer so many questions in a survey") is based on a suggestion by Stocké (2006). 74 Tests on the reliability and validity of a shortened scale confirm reliability, congruent validity and content validity of the scale.…”

Don't Know Responses in Water Quality Surveys

“…Past studies have identified consistent correlates with DK responses, and respondents with certain characteristics are found to be more likely t o g i v e D K r e s p o n s e s t h a n o t h e r s i n a t t i tudinal and opinion surveys. In particular, researchers have found that females, nonwhites, low-educated, low-income, and noninvolved respondents with feelings of low political efficacy give a predictably high number of DK responses (Francis and Busch, 1975;Faulkenberry and Mason, 1978;Pickery and Loosveldt, 1998;Singer et al, 2000;Krosnick et al 2002;Stocke, 2006).…”