More Like this

1. The Visible Cash Effect with Prepaid Incentives: Evidence for Data Quality, Response Rates, Generalizability, and Cost

   https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smac032  

   DeBell, Matthew (November 2022, Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology)

   Abstract A prior study found that mailing prepaid incentives with $5 cash visible from outside the envelope increased the response rate to a mail survey by 4 percentage points compared to cash that was not externally visible. This “visible cash effect” suggests opportunities to improve survey response at little or no cost, but many unknowns remain. Among them: Does the visible cash effect generalize to different survey modes, respondent burdens, and cash amounts? Does it differ between fresh samples and reinterview samples? Does it affect data quality or survey costs? This article examines these questions using two linked studies where incentive visibility was randomized in a large probability sample for the American National Election Studies. The first study used $10 incentives with invitations to a long web questionnaire (median 71 minutes, n = 17,849). Visible cash increased response rates in a fresh sample for both screener and extended interview response (by 6.7 and 4.8 percentage points, respectively). Visible cash did not increase the response rate in a reinterview sample where the baseline reinterview response rate was very high (72 percent). The second study used $5 incentives with invitations to a mail-back paper questionnaire (n = 8,000). Visible cash increased the response rate in a sample of prior nonrespondents by 4.0 percentage points (from 31.5 to 35.5), but it did not increase the response rate in a reinterview sample where the baseline reinterview rate was very high (84 percent). In the two studies, several aspects of data quality were investigated, including speeding, non-differentiation, item nonresponse, nonserious responses, noncredible responses, sample composition, and predictive validity; no adverse effects of visible cash were detected, and sample composition improved marginally. Effects on survey costs were either negligible or resulted in net savings. Accumulated evidence now shows that visible cash can increase incentives’ effectiveness in several circumstances. 

   more » « less
2. Participation incentives in a survey of international non-profit professionals

   https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221125723  

   Safarpour, Alauna; Bush, Sarah Sunn; Hadden, Jennifer (July 2022, Research & Politics)

   Elite surveys are increasingly common in political science, but how best to motivate participation in them remains poorly understood. This study compares the effect of three treatments designed to increase participation in an online survey of international non-profit professionals: a monetary reward, an altruistic appeal emphasizing the study’s benefits, and a promise to give the respondent access to the study’s results. Only the monetary incentive increased the survey response rate. It did not decrease response quality as measured in terms of straight-lining or skipped questions, although it may have produced a pool of respondents more likely to speed through the survey. The findings suggest that monetary incentives reduce total survey error even in the context of an elite survey, perhaps especially with elite populations frequently contacted by researchers. However, such incentives may not be without trade-offs in terms of how carefully respondents engage with the survey. 

   more » « less
3. Comparing the Use of Two Different Approaches to Assess Teachers’ Knowledge of Models and Modeling in Science Teaching

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040405  

   Carroll, Grace; Park, Soonhye (April 2023, Education Sciences)

   Science teacher knowledge for effective teaching consists of multiple knowledge bases, one of which includes science content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. With the inclusion of science and engineering practices into the national science education standards in the US, teachers’ content knowledge goes beyond subject matter knowledge and into the realm of how scientists use practices for scientific inquiry. This study compares two approaches to constructing and validating two different versions of a survey that aims to measure the construct of teachers’ knowledge of models and modeling in science teaching. In the first version, a 24-item Likert scale survey containing content and pedagogical knowledge items was found to lack the ability to distinguish different knowledge levels for respondents, and validation through factor analysis indicated content and pedagogical knowledge items could not be separated. Findings from the validation results of the first survey influenced revisions to the second version of the survey, a 25-item multiple-choice instrument. The second survey employed a competence model framework for models and modeling for item specifications, and results from exploratory factor analysis revealed this approach to assessing the construct to be more appropriate. Recommendations for teacher assessment of science practices using competence models and points to consider in survey design, including norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests, are discussed. 

   more » « less
4. Avatar Embodiment. A Standardized Questionnaire

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2020.575943  

   Peck, Tabitha C.; Gonzalez-Franco, Mar (February 2021, Frontiers in Virtual Reality)

   null (Ed.)

   The aim of this paper is to further the understanding of embodiment by 1) analytically determining the components defining embodiment, 2) increasing comparability and standardization of the measurement of embodiment across experiments by providing a universal embodiment questionnaire that is validated and reliable, and 3) motivating researchers to use a standardized questionnaire. In this paper we validate numerically and refine our previously proposed Embodiment Questionnaire. We collected data from nine experiments, with over 400 questionnaires, that used all or part of the original embodiment 25-item questionnaire. Analysis was performed to eliminate non-universal questions, redundant questions, and questions that were not strongly correlated with other questions. We further numerically categorized and weighted sub-scales and determined that embodiment is comprised of interrelated categories of Appearance, Response, Ownership, and Multi-Sensory. The final questionnaire consists of 16 questions and four interrelated sub-scales with high reliability within each sub-scale, Chronbach’s α ranged from 0.72 to 0.82. Results of the original and refined questionnaire are compared over all nine experiments and in detail for three of the experiments. The updated questionnaire produced a wider range of embodiment scores compared to the original questionnaire, was able to detect the presence of a self-avatar, and was able to discern that participants over 30 years of age have significantly lower embodiment scores compared to participants under 30 years of age. Removed questions and further research of interest to the community are discussed. 

   more » « less
5. Geosocietal Support for Democracy: Survey Evidence from Ukraine

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724000422  

   Alexseev, Mikhail A; Dembitskyi, Serhii (April 2024, Perspectives on Politics)

   We examine why public support for democracy in Ukraine increased after Russia’s 2014 intervention and surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion—despite concerns that the wartime quest for security would diminish support for political freedoms. We statistically analyze original data generated as part of annual opinion surveys by the Institute of Sociology at Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences in 2017 (N = 2,199), 2018 (N = 1,800), and a 2021–22 panel survey with the same respondents (N = 475) interviewed before and after Russia’s invasion. Our findings indicate that wartime support for democracy is in significant respectsgeosocietal—arising from the mobilization of civic national identity conditioned by salient geopolitical threats. Civic pride, attribution of threat to an external authoritarian aggressor, and war onset were the strongest and most robust predictors of multiple democracy support indicators, overriding personal loss and stress. The findings call for more attention to the interaction of geopolitical and social contexts shaping political attitudes, with implications for democratic futures globally. 

   more » « less