Costs and Benefits of Conversational Survey Interviewing

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Conversational interviewers--survey interviewers who depart from strictly standardized methods by explaining critical survey concepts to respondents--can sometimes improve response accuracy in fact-based surveys. Using experimental methods, the current research examines in more detail how different kinds of conversational interviewing affect response accuracy, defined as the fit between respondents' answers and the official definitions of key concepts in the questions. The aims include understanding the cues that interviewers consider as they judge whether respondents need help interpreting questions, and understanding how and when respondents know that they don't know how to answer survey questions. This project contributes to several practical goals. Knowing more about how different kinds of interviewer deviations from the survey script affect response accuracy can help survey researchers choose interviewing techniques most appropriate for their research goals and cost constraints; that is, any gains in accuracy from conversational interviewing may not be worth the additional expense. Knowing more about what leads respondents to ask interviewers for help interpreting questions, when respondents display other kinds of uncertainty, and how this uncertainty is displayed is essential for training conversational interviewers. The results can inform current face-to-face and telephone survey interviews, as well as potential computer-based survey systems, both textual and spoken.