Are panelists employees or respondents? Social versus economic exchange

Eric Taylor

Discussions of online survey methods frequently invoke the label 'professional respondents', painting online survey panelists as mostly self-interested and incentive-maximising, and indifferent to researchers' concerns.

Are panelists employees or respondents? Social versus economic exchange

Eric Taylor Online Research Services, Western Wats Center, Inc., United States

INTRODUCTION

Commercial and academic discussions of online survey methods frequently invoke the label “professional respondents.” The term is sufficiently slippery to allow broad variation in what is meant by a “professional respondent”, but in short, “'professional respondents' are assumed to be motivated by incentive maximization rather than intrinsic interest in survey participation, behavior which is assumed to be inconsistent with accurate and unbiased responses” (Smith and Brown, 2005). From these assumptions the discussion usually rushes...

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