The role of topic interest and topic salience in online panel web surveys

Florian Keusch

Invitations to web surveys sent out through online access panels usually do not mention the topic of the survey, in order to reduce the risk of expert bias.

The role of topic interest and topic salience in online panel web surveys

Florian Keusch

University of Michigan

Introduction

It is widely recognised that survey topic is one of the major motivators for survey participation. In a study conducted by GfK Germany, 92% of the 2,000 respondents said that an interesting topic is a ‘very important’ or ‘important’ reason for taking part in a survey (Wübbenhorst & Wildner 2007). This also seems to hold true for survey participation requests sent out via email (Couper 2005). Tuten (1997) shows that personal interest in the topic announced in the email subject line...

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