Abstract #301479

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JSM 2003 Abstract #301479
Activity Number: 235
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
Abstract - #301479
Title: The Effects of Visual Construction Variations on Answers to Internet Surveys
Author(s): Don A. Dillman*+
Companies: Washington State University
Address: 133 Wilson Hall, Pullman, WA, 99164-4014,
Keywords: survey ; internet ; visual design ; self-administered ; questionnaire
Abstract:

Evidence now exists that answers to paper self-administered surveys can be influenced, sometimes dramatically, by variations in the visual layout of items. Manipulations of symbols, numbers and graphics, as well as words, have been shown to independently and in concert change people's answers. In this paper results will be presented from web survey tests of items for which differences were already found to exist in paper questionnaire tests. The issue addressed by this paper is whether the visual effects are similar or different in web suveys. Examples of the experiments include horizontal vs. vertical layout of answer categories, number box vs. full presentation of the scalar categories, various visual layouts of check-all-that-apply items, and use of check-all-that-apply answer vs. yes/no queries on each item. Data come from an experiment conducted in winter 2003 on a random sample of several hundred undergraduate students at Washington State University.

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