Experiments with incentives in telephone surveys.

Area of Science:

• Survey Methodology
• Social Sciences Research

Background:

• Noncooperation is a significant challenge for survey organizations.
• Incentives are increasingly used to improve survey response rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of different incentive strategies in a monthly telephone survey.
• To assess the impact of incentives on response rates, quality, and costs.

Main Methods:

• Conducted experiments over two years with the Survey of Consumer Attitudes telephone survey.
• Tested prepaid versus promised incentives, advance letters, and combined strategies.
• Analyzed effects on response quality, sample composition, and bias.

Main Results:

• Incentives, particularly prepaid ones, were effective in increasing response rates.
• Advance letters combined with prepaid incentives showed promising results.
• Incentives influenced sample composition and respondent expectations.

Conclusions:

• Prepaid incentives are a viable strategy to enhance telephone survey participation.
• Careful consideration of incentive type and delivery can optimize survey outcomes.
• Further research is needed on long-term effects and cost-benefit analyses.