TY - JOUR

T1 - Are respondents ready for audio and voice communication channels in online surveys?

AU - Höhne, Jan Karem

N1 - Funding Information: The author is grateful to Ulrich Krieger (University of Mannheim) and Tobias Rettig (University of Mannheim) for providing data access. I also thank Dagmar Krebs (University of Gießen) for her valuable suggestions during the writing. I acknowledge financial support by the German Research Foundation (Grant Number: 139943784) through the Collaborative Research Center 884 'Political Economy of Reforms' at the University of Mannheim (Germany)

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Technological advancements and changes in online survey participation pave the way for new data collection methods. Particularly, the increasing smartphone rate in online surveys facilitates a re-consideration of prevailing communication channels to, for instance, naturalize the communication process between researchers and respondents and to collect more in-depth and high-quality data. However, so far, there is a lack of information on whether respondents are willing to undergo a change in communication channels. In this study, I therefore investigate respondents’ willingness to participate in online surveys with a smartphone to have the survey questions read out loud (audio channel) and to give oral answers via voice input (voice channel). For this purpose, I employed two willingness questions–one on audio and one on voice channels–in the probability-based German Internet Panel (N = 4,426). The results reveal that a substantial minority of respondents is willing to participate in online surveys with a smartphone to have the survey questions read out loud and to give oral answers via voice input. They also show that the device used for survey participation and personality traits, such as conscientiousness and extraversion, play a role when it comes to respondents’ willingness.

AB - Technological advancements and changes in online survey participation pave the way for new data collection methods. Particularly, the increasing smartphone rate in online surveys facilitates a re-consideration of prevailing communication channels to, for instance, naturalize the communication process between researchers and respondents and to collect more in-depth and high-quality data. However, so far, there is a lack of information on whether respondents are willing to undergo a change in communication channels. In this study, I therefore investigate respondents’ willingness to participate in online surveys with a smartphone to have the survey questions read out loud (audio channel) and to give oral answers via voice input (voice channel). For this purpose, I employed two willingness questions–one on audio and one on voice channels–in the probability-based German Internet Panel (N = 4,426). The results reveal that a substantial minority of respondents is willing to participate in online surveys with a smartphone to have the survey questions read out loud and to give oral answers via voice input. They also show that the device used for survey participation and personality traits, such as conscientiousness and extraversion, play a role when it comes to respondents’ willingness.

KW - Automatic question reading

KW - probability-based online panel

KW - respondent willingness

KW - smartphone

KW - voice answers

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117265600&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13645579.2021.1987121

DO - 10.1080/13645579.2021.1987121

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85117265600

VL - 26

SP - 335

EP - 342

JO - International Journal of Social Research Methodology

JF - International Journal of Social Research Methodology

SN - 1364-5579

IS - 3

ER -