Questionnaire length, Fatigue effects and response quality: Revisited

This paper updates earlier research, before the advent of social media, into the effects of survey length, respondent fatigue and subsequent response quality.

Questionnaire length, Fatigue effects and response quality: Revisited

Pete CapeSurvey Sampling International

Introduction

At the first ESOMAR Panels Conference in 2005 the award for best paper went to Sandra Rathod and Andrea la Bruna for their paper "Questionnaire Length and Fatigue Effects". The conclusions they drew are as relevant today, if not more relevant, as they were then.

Their main conclusions were:

  • Response rate does not depend on interview length
  • Longer surveys do not necessarily mean increased drop-out, most drop-out has occurred by the half way stage, irrespective of interview length.
  • Respondents get fatigued, pay less attention to the...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands