Consequences of Reducing Nonresponse in a National Telephone Survey
2000/01/01 by Scott Keeter, Carolyn Miller, Andrew Kohut +2 · 994 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Advertising #Business #Demography #Economic and Environmental Valuation #Interview #Mathematics #Non-response bias #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Public opinion #Sample (material) #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social connectedness #Social psychology #Sociology #Statistics #Survey Methodology and Nonresponse #Telephone survey
paper · doi:10.1086/317759
published in Public Opinion Quarterly 64(2), 125-148 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2000/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract
Critics of public opinion polls often claim that methodological shortcuts taken to collect timely data produce biased results. This study compares two random digit dial national telephone surveys that used identical questionnaires but very different levels of effort: a "Standard" survey conducted over a 5-day period that used a sample of adults who were home when the interviewer called, and a "Rigorous" survey conducted over an 8-week period that used random selection from among all adult household members. Response rates, computed according to AAPOR guidelines, were 60.6 percent for the Rigorous and 36.0 percent for the Standard study. Nonetheless, the two surveys produced similar results. Across 91 comparisons, no difference exceeded 9 percentage points, and the average difference was about 2 percentage points. Most of the statistically significant differences were among demographic items. Very few significant differences were found on attention to media and engagement in politics, social trust and connectedness, and most social and political attitudes, including even those toward surveys.
Cited by
- Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias in Household Surveys
- The Impact of Nonresponse Rates on Nonresponse Bias: A Meta-Analysis
- The Role of Topic Interest in Survey Participation Decisions
- Survey Participation, Nonresponse Bias, Measurement Error Bias, and Total Bias
- Apples to Oranges or Gala versus Golden Delicious?
- Examining the Relationship Between Nonresponse Propensity and Data Quality in Two National Household Surveys
- Research Synthesis: AAPOR Report on Online Panels
- Organizations and Survey Research
- A Note on Mechanisms Leading to Lower Data Quality of Late or Reluctant Respondents
- The Effects of Response Rate Changes on the Index of Consumer Sentiment
- A Comparison of Alternative Indicators for the Risk of Nonresponse Bias
- Exploring the Digital Divide
- Integrating Exchange and Heuristic Theories of Survey Nonresponse
- Participation Rates in Epidemiologic Studies
- Interviewer Involvement in Respondent Selection Moderates the Relationship Between Response Rates and Sample Bias in Cross-National Survey Projects in Europe
- Keeping Surveys Valid, Reliable, and Useful: A Tutorial
- Small networks and high isolation? A reexamination of American discussion networks
- Polling bias and undecided voter allocations: US Presidential elections, 2004 - 2016
- Do Non-Response Follow-Ups Improve or Reduce Data Quality?: A Review of the Existing Literature
- Measuring affective polarization: Matching concepts to measures
- Nonresponse and Mode Effects in Self- and Interviewer-Administered Surveys
- The Internet as Psychological Laboratory
- Estimates of Non-Heterosexual Prevalence: The Roles of Anonymity and Privacy in Survey Methodology
- Does the Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political Opinions
- Black-White Differences in Attitudes toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights
- Hostile Media and the Campaign Trail: Perceived Media Bias in the Race for Governor
- The digital production gap: The digital divide and Web 2.0 collide
- The Gender Gap in Orgasms: Survey Data from a Mid-Sized Canadian City
- Difficulty of Reaching Respondents and Nonresponse Bias: Evidence from Large Government Surveys
- RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED NEIGHBORHOOD RACIAL COMPOSITION AND WHITES’ PERCEPTIONS OF VICTIMIZATION RISK: DO RACIAL STEREOTYPES MATTER?*
- The Oslo Health Study: The impact of self-selection in a large, population-based survey. [europepmc]
- Self-medication with antimicrobial drugs in Europe. [europepmc]
- Methods of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey. [europepmc]
- Urban neighborhood poverty and the incidence of depression in a population-based cohort study. [europepmc]
- Public response to community mitigation measures for pandemic influenza. [europepmc]
- Relations among gender, violence exposure, and mental health: the national survey of adolescents. [europepmc]
- The impact of active consent procedures on nonresponse and nonresponse error in youth survey data: evidence from a new experiment. [europepmc]
- Employment and compliance with pandemic influenza mitigation recommendations. [europepmc]
- "Sleep disparity" in the population: poor sleep quality is strongly associated with poverty and ethnicity. [europepmc]
- Comparison of participants and non-participants to the ORISCAV-LUX population-based study on cardiovascular risk factors in Luxembourg. [europepmc]
- Do cigarette prices motivate smokers to quit? New evidence from the ITC survey. [europepmc]
- Prevalence and correlates of waterpipe tobacco smoking by college students in North Carolina. [europepmc]
- Longitudinal pathways of victimization, substance use, and delinquency: findings from the National Survey of Adolescents. [europepmc]
- College students and use of K2: an emerging drug of abuse in young persons. [europepmc]
- Impact of physician BMI on obesity care and beliefs. [europepmc]
- Adherence to adjuvant hormone therapy in low-income women with breast cancer: the role of provider-patient communication. [europepmc]
- Response Rates in National Panel Surveys. [europepmc]
- Electronic cigarette use by college students. [europepmc]
- Volunteer bias in recruitment, retention, and blood sample donation in a randomised controlled trial involving mothers and their children at six months and two years: a longitudinal analysis. [europepmc]
- Perceived judgment about weight can negatively influence weight loss: a cross-sectional study of overweight and obese patients. [europepmc]
- Patients who feel judged about their weight have lower trust in their primary care providers. [europepmc]
- Teachers' and Education Support Professionals' Perspectives on Bullying and Prevention: Findings From a National Education Association Study. [europepmc]
- Adverse childhood experiences are associated with spontaneous preterm birth: a case-control study. [europepmc]
- The Role of Bias by Emergency Department Providers in Care for American Indian Children. [europepmc]
- Sources of Error in Substance Use Prevalence Surveys. [europepmc]
Related