Skip Navigation



Public Opinion Quarterly Advance Access published online on February 8, 2008
Public Opinion Quarterly, doi:10.1093/poq/nfn005
This Article
Right arrow Summary
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
72/1/103    most recent
nfn005v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Smyth, J. D.
Right arrow Articles by Dillman, D. A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Does "Yes or No" on the Telephone Mean the Same as "Check-All-That-Apply" on the Web?

Jolene D. Smyth, Leah Melani Christian and Don A. Dillman

Address correspondence to Jolene D. Smyth; e-mail: jsmyth2{at}unl.edu

Recent experimental research has shown that respondents to forced-choice questions endorse significantly more options than respondents to check-all questions. This research has challenged the common assumption that these two question formats can be used interchangeably but has been limited to comparisons within a single survey mode. In this paper we use data from a 2004 random sample survey of university students to compare the forced-choice and check-all question formats across web self-administered and telephone interviewer-administered surveys as they are commonly used in survey practice. We find that the within-mode question format effects revealed by previous research and reaffirmed in the current study appear to persist across modes as well; the telephone forced-choice format produces higher endorsement than the web check-all format. These results provide further support for the argument that the check-all and forced-choice question formats do not produce comparable results and are not interchangeable formats. Additional comparisons show that the forced-choice format performs similarly across telephone and web modes.

JOLENE D. SMYTH is with the Survey Research and Methodology Program and the Department of Sociology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, PO Box 880241, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.

LEAH MELANI CHRISTIAN is with Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 1615 L Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036-5610, USA.

DON A. DILLMAN is with Washington State University, Wilson Hall 133, PO Box 644014, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. This is a revision of a paper presented at the Second International Conference on Telephone Survey Methodology, Miami, FL, USA, January 11–15, 2006. Analysis of these data was supported by funds provided to the Washington State University Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) under Cooperative Agreement 43-3AEU-1-80055 with the USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service, supported by the National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics. Data collection was financed by the SESRC and additional funds provided to the SESRC by the Gallup Organization.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.