Are there differences in responses to social identity questions in face-to-face versus telephone interviews? Results of an experiment on a longitudinal survey

Nandi, Alita and Platt, Lucinda ORCID: 0000-0002-8251-6400 (2016) Are there differences in responses to social identity questions in face-to-face versus telephone interviews? Results of an experiment on a longitudinal survey. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20 (2). pp. 151-166. ISSN 1364-5579

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Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of interview mode (telephone versus face-to-face) on responses to a 13-item module of identity questions covering distinct domains. With increasing moves towards mixed-mode implementation, especially in longitudinal surveys, establishing whether mode effects are likely to influence findings is of practical value. A growing number of studies explore mode effects; but the potential impact of mode on identity questions has not been investigated, even though such questions are increasingly being asked in multi-topic surveys. Adjusting for selection, we find little evidence for specific mode effects. The exception is responses on political identity: telephone responders are eight percentage points more likely to consider politics important to their identity. We do not find differences in data quality as measured by item non-response, straightlining, primacy and recency effects across modes. We conclude that mode effects are small for identity questions.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tsrm20
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Authors
Divisions:	Social Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2016 10:51
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2025 09:18
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/65866

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