We Can Hear Where You Are: Evaluating Interviewer Intuitions About Whether Cell Phone Respondents Are at Home or Away from Home
Becky Reimer
NORC at the University of Chicago
Dan Malato
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
Christopher Ward
NORC at the University of Chicago
Jennifer Kelly
NORC at the University of Chicago
Trevor Tompson
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
Jennifer Benz
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
Recent research on cell telephone interviewing suggests that more than a quarter of cell respondents who complete interviews do so while away from home, and that "cell-away" respondents may be less inclined to provide certain types of information (Ward, et al., 2013; Lavrakas, et al., 2010). It seems possible that this group may behave differently during the screening process (in addition to the interview) and have lower cooperation rates than those at home. When investigating differences by location, it is unlikely that every respondent will report his/her location on every call. We examine whether interviewers can use respondent and situational cues to estimate location. Interviewers were trained to guess respondents' home/away status, and on some calls, they also asked respondents directly about their location. This allowed us to compare interviewer perceptions and respondent reports. We examine the accuracy of interviewer estimates as well as differences in interview completion for those believed to be at home vs. away from home. We discuss implications for callback strategies and refusal aversion techniques based on these differences.