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International Journal of Public Opinion Research Advance Access originally published online on November 23, 2006
International Journal of Public Opinion Research 2007 19(2):258-268; doi:10.1093/ijpor/edl028
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The World Association for Public Opinion Research. All rights reserved.

Personalizing E-mail Contacts: Its Influence on Web Survey Response Rate and Social Desirability Response Bias

Dirk Heerwegh and Geert Loosveldt

Address correspondence to Dirk Heerwegh, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Center for Sociological Research (CESO), E. Van Evenstraat 2B, 3000 Leuven, Belgium, dirk.heerwegh@soc.kuleuven.be

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Previous studies (Pearson & Levine, 2003; Joinson & Reips, 2004; Heerwegh, Vanhove, Matthijs, & Loosveldt, 2005; Heerwegh, 2005) showed that personalization improves response to web surveys, but concerns have been raised and subtle indications have been found suggesting that personalization might result in more socially desirable responses (Heerwegh et al., 2005; Heerwegh, 2005; Joinson, Woodley, & Reips, 2007). The current study provides a stronger test of the hypothesis that personalization would induce social desirability bias, and secondarily provides an additional test of the effect of personalization on web survey response rates. The study relies on a larger number of survey questions potentially under the influence of social desirability bias than previous research. Moreover, to circumvent some problems encountered in previous research with identifying the socially desirable responses, the current study includes a mixed mode experiment.


   EFFECT OF PERSONALIZATION ON RESPONSE BEHAVIOR
 
Apart from a positive effect on the web . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   STUDY DESIGN
 

   RESULTS
 
SURVEY RESPONSE
IDENTIFICATION OF SUITABLE SURVEY QUESTIONS AND OF THE SOCIALLY DESIRABLE RESPONSES
DETECTING SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE BIAS DUE TO PERSONALIZATION OF E-MAIL CONTACTS

   DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
 

   APPENDIX: WORDING OF QUESTIONS MEASURING ATTITUDES TO IMMIGRANTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
 
ATTITUDE TOWARD IMMIGRANTS
ATTITUDE TOWARD ASYLUM SEEKERS

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