Collaborative Research: Cognitive Issues in the Design of Web Surveys

收集调查数据的新方法的发展，包括网络调查，可能会开启自我管理调查的黄金时代。新的数据收集方法似乎提供了计算机化的力量和复杂性，以及自我管理的私密性。同时，由于它们不需要面试者，它们可以减少其他类型的调查错误，并可以显著降低进行调查的成本。尽管如此，越来越多的证据表明，不同的自我管理方法可以产生不同的结果；这些自我管理方法之间的差异似乎反映了受访者和电子问卷之间接口的明显附带特征。这项与Couper(SES-9910882)的合作研究测试了一种解释界面这些影响的理论。该理论中的关键概念是社会在场。在某种程度上，数据收集的方法、设置或界面给受访者一种与另一个人互动的感觉，它将触发类似于面试者触发的动机。这些动机包括避免让自己难堪或冒犯他人的愿望，以及增强完成面试的动机。网络提供了大量的资源来吸引受访者的兴趣(彩色、动画图像)，但即使界面表面上无害的特征也可以创造一种社交现场感，产生社会期望和相关的反应效果。本实验将试图通过网络调查来确定界面的特征，从而创造出一种虚拟的社会存在。将通过电话对受访者进行抽样调查，以完成网络调查。无论电子提问者是否被识别出名字(你好！我是约翰)，以及它是否明确地提醒人们以前的答案，这项实验将有所不同。第一次实验的结果可能会建议在预算允许的情况下进行后续实验。在任何后续研究中要检验的主要假设是，界面越能创造一种社交存在感，越多的受访者会表现得就像是在与另一个人互动。这项研究得到了方法学、测量和统计计划和联邦统计机构联盟的支持，该联盟隶属于调查方法学资助机会研究。

The development of new methods for collecting survey data, including Web surveys, may be ushering in a golden age for self-administered surveys. The new methods of data collection appear to offer the power and complexity of computerization combined with the privacy of self-administration. At the same time, because they do not require an interviewer, they may reduce other types of survey error and could dramatically lower the costs of conducting surveys. Still, there is mounting evidence that different methods of self administration can produce different results; these differences across methods of self administration seem to reflect apparently incidental features of the interface between the respondent and the electronic questionnaire. This collaborative research with Couper (SES-9910882) tests a theory to explain these effects of the interface. The key concept in the theory is that of social presence. To the extent that the method of data collection, its setting, or the interface gives the respondent a sense of interacting with another person, it will trigger motivations similar to those triggered by an interviewer. These motivations include the desire to avoid embarrassing oneself or giving offense to someone else, as well as enhanced motivation to complete the interview. The Web offer ample resources for attracting the interest of the respondent (color, animated images), but even apparently innocuous characteristics of the interface can create a sense of social presence, producing social desirability and related response effects.This experiment will attempt to identify the features of the interface with a Web survey that create a virtual social presence. A sample of respondents will be recruited by telephone to complete a Web survey. The experiment will vary whether or not the electronic questioner is identified by name ("Hi! I'm John") and whether or not it offers explicit reminders of prior answers. The results of this first experiment may suggest follow-up experiments to be carried out if the budget permits. The main hypothesis to be tested in any follow-up studies is that the more the interface creates a sense of social presence, the more respondents will act as if they are interacting with another human being. This research is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies under the Research on Survey Methodology Funding Opportunity.