GREETING AND RESPONSE: PREDICTING PARTICIPATION FROM THE CALL OPENING

Area of Science:

• Survey methodology
• Communication science
• Psychology

Background:

• Phone surveys are widely used but interviewer training is limited by understanding early call dynamics.
• Sample member participation decisions are made rapidly at the call opening.
• Analyzing the initial moments of calls can predict survey response.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key elements in the first speaking turns of phone calls that influence sample member participation.
• To analyze the impact of acoustic-prosodic features and interviewer actions on survey response.
• To provide data-driven insights for improving interviewer training and call opening strategies.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of matched pairs of acceptances and declinations from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.
• Case-control design utilizing conditional logistic regression.
• Focus on acoustic-prosodic components and interviewer actions in the first speaking turns.

Main Results:

• A wider pitch span in the sample member's "hello" positively correlates with higher participation odds.
• The structure of the interviewer's first turn significantly impacts participation.
• An "efficient" interviewer turn (delaying identification) resulted in substantially lower participation odds compared to a "canonical" turn (immediate identification).

Conclusions:

• Interviewer identification strategies in the initial moments of a call critically affect survey participation.
• Findings suggest that a canonical interviewer opening is more effective for securing participation than an efficient one.
• Further research can inform the design of interviewer first turns for diverse populations and technologies.