“Money Will Solve the Problem”: Testing the Effectiveness of Conditional Incentives for Online Surveys

Abstract

In conducting surveys, incentivizing participation through the use of cash or other rewards has often been used to encourage participation. This is often done with the hopes of increasing response rates and, therefore, representativeness of the responding sample as well. The effectiveness of incentives has generally been shown to be positive, but results have been mixed for conditional incentives and for online surveys. Using an experimental design and leverage-salience theory, the survey uses a random sample of full-time undergraduate students to estimate group differences. Both official and self-report data are utilized to assess various social statistics. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three different groups, which determined whether they were offered five dollars, two dollars, or nothing for their participation. Results indicate that a five-dollar conditional reward credited to students' campus ID card account does increase participation rates, which does improve the representativeness of the sample by reducing differences in GPA and gender proportions. The difference in representativeness, however, does not appear to significantly bias substantive conclusions.

Testing a motivational model of delivery modality and incentives on participation in a brief alcohol intervention

“…In this way, the research community where studies are implemented is disconnected from the context in which the interventions will eventually be implemented. Previous research has found that incentives increase response rates for surveys (Brown et al, 2016; DeCamp & Manierre, 2016; Edwards et al, 2002; Göritz, 2010), but these results strictly apply to research studies. Empirical support for intervention strategies is often based on controlled studies which have recruited participants using monetary or other incentives.…”

Perspectives and possibilities for developing ride-sharing services to promote sustainable mode of transport: Bangladesh perspective

“…Despite the expression of reasonable concerns about potential bias in electronic survey methodologies and monetary rewards for individuals, it appears that these tactics and methods have more positive aspects than negative ones. As an example, a study of undergraduates at a university in the Midwest, USA, discovered that monetary incentives increased both the response rate and the sample's representation of the target demographic in an online survey [ 33 ]. While this study did find some discrepancies across the number of participants and actual population dimensions, the researchers concluded that these discrepancies were too small to warrant further scrutiny.…”

Teaching undergraduate students to think like real‐world systems engineers: A technology‐based hybrid learning approach

“…Moreover, we preferred not to offer financial incentives to students to avoid respondents who are only participating for the incentive. Despite such incentives showing increased response rates, as reported by literature, 45 we did not offer financial incentives since we are aware that responses may be biased due to some individuals being more motivated by financial incentives than others, as reported by literature 46 . A detailed analysis of the results obtained from these surveys is presented in the next section.…”