185 – Incentives, Response Rates, and Response Options in Surveys
Household Early Bird Incentives: Leveraging Family Influence to Improve Household Response Rates
Amaya Ashley
NORC
Kari Carris
NORC
Felicia LeClere
NORC
Shelly Plummer
NORC
Jennifer Vanicek
NORC
The effects of incentives on survey participation have been found in previous research to be dependent on both the survey context and respondent characteristics. In this study, we report the results of an experiment in which we expand the source of leverage to include other members of the household to assess whether adding incentives for completion by all eligible members of a sampled household has a substantial and differential effect on survey participation. The experiment was conducted among six communities that participate in the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the U.S. (REACH U.S.) Risk Factor Survey (RFS). Addresses were randomly assigned to one of the following groups prior to data collection: (1) control with no incentive, (2) a group that receives a $5 prepaid incentive, or (3) a group that receives the $5 prepaid incentive with a promised $20 payment if all eligible members of the household respond within 7 days of initial contact. We examine key survey performance rates including the interview completion rate to assess whether the household level incentive has any additional impact on the willingness to complete a survey.