Quantitative conversations: the importance of developing rapport in standardised interviewing.

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Survey Methodology
• Sociology

Background:

• Household surveys prioritize accurate and comparable responses through carefully designed instruments.
• Standardised interviewing is preferred over conversational techniques to mitigate interviewer effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the extent of unscripted conversation in standardized survey interviewing.
• To evaluate the impact of these conversations on survey accuracy, reliability, and ethical conduct.

Main Methods:

• Behavior coding analysis of survey paradata from the 2012 UK Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey.
• Examination of unscripted interactions between interviewers and respondents.

Main Results:

• Standardised survey interviewing frequently involves extensive unscripted conversation.
• These interactions can improve response accuracy, cooperation, and ethicality.
• Unscripted conversations also pose challenges to survey reliability and ethical standards.

Conclusions:

• Enhanced training in conversational techniques is essential for standardized interviewing.
• The study raises epistemological questions about the assumed degree of standardization in survey research.
• Theoretical implications for the qualitative-quantitative dichotomy in research are discussed.