Who prefers smartphone surveys? Revisiting predictors of survey mode preference

2026/01/08 by Kristen Olson, Jolene D. Smyth · 1 voice
Computer Science · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing #Mobile Health and mHealth Applications #Survey Methodology and Nonresponse

paper · doi:10.1093/jrsssa/qnag001

openalex publication_date 2026/01/08 · openalex created_date 2026/01/22 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Abstract Survey researchers attempt to anticipate sample members’ preferred mode for participation to increase response rates and reduce survey costs. Research conducted in the early 2000s showed that mode familiarity, mode access, and cognitive and physical abilities predicted mode preferences. Much has changed in technology and communication methods since this initial work. This paper reexamines predictors of survey mode preferences using a general population mixed-mode survey conducted in 2022 and extends these models to examine preferences for taking surveys on computers vs. mobile devices. In the survey examined here, we find that about 2% of adults prefer interviewer-administered modes, 47% prefer mail, 34% prefer computer web, and 16% prefer mobile web. Mode familiarity, and cognitive and physical abilities are strong predictors of mode preferences, as well as having a smartphone. Importantly, the mode preference models differentiate between selection of mail and web modes (mode choice) and are transportable to other surveys, predicting mode choice in a separate study where mode preferences were not asked. Mode preferences can be used to design surveys to be attractive to different respondent groups, including in adaptive and responsive designs.

Citations

• Preference for Online Social Interaction
• Does Giving People Their Preferred Survey Mode Actually Increase Survey Participation Rates? An Experimental Examination
• Best Practices for Estimating, Interpreting, and Presenting Nonlinear Interaction Effects
• Using Smartphones to Capture and Combine Self-Reports and Passively Measured Behavior in Social Research
• Optimizing Data Collection Interventions to Balance Cost and Quality in a Sequential Multimode Survey
• Survey Consent to Administrative Data Linkage: Five Experiments on Wording and Format
• Incorporating Adaptive Survey Design in a Two-Stage National Web or Mail Mixed-Mode Survey: An Experiment in the American Family Health Study
• Improving the Efficiency of Outbound CATI As a Nonresponse Follow-Up Mode in Address-Based Samples: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Dynamic Adaptive Design
• Sequential and Concurrent Mixed-Mode Designs: A Tailored Approach
• When to Text? How the Timing of Text Message Contacts in Mixed-Mode Surveys Impacts Response

Discussions

• Survey methods Who wants to take surveys on their phone? Olson & Smyth revisit what predicts survey mode preference in the smartphone era 📱 doi.org/10.1093/jrss... [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]