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，可能会迎来自我管理调查的黄金时代。数据收集的新方法似乎提供了计算机化的能力和复杂性以及自我管理的私密性。同时，由于他们不需要一个采访者，他们可能会减少其他类型的调查错误，并可能大大降低进行调查的成本。然而，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界面的明显偶然特征。这项与库珀（SES-9910882）的合作研究测试了一个理论来解释这些界面的影响。该理论的关键概念是社会存在。在某种程度上，数据收集的方法，它的设置，或者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官触发的动机。这些动机包括避免让自己难堪或冒犯他人的愿望，以及完成面试的增强动机。Web提供了丰富的资源来吸引应答者的兴趣（颜色、动画图像），但即使是表面上无害的界面特征也能创造一种社会存在感，产生社会期望和相关的响应效果。这个实验将尝试通过创建虚拟社会存在的网络调查来识别界面的特征。将通过电话征集受访者样本来完成一项网络调查。无论电子提问者是否通过名字来识别(“嗨！我是约翰”)，以及它是否提供了对先前答案的明确提醒。第一次实验的结果可能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测试的主要假设是，界面越能创造一种社会存在感，越多的受访者会表现得好像他们在与另一个人互动。本研究得到了方法、测量和统计项目以及联邦统计机构联盟在调查方法研究资助机会下的支持。

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.