Impact of Email Tone on Web-Survey Participation among Young Adult Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Respondents
Kristine Wiant
RTI International
Patricia LeBaron
RTI International
Leah Fiacco
RTI International
Gretchen McHenry
RTI International
Janine Delahanty
Center for Tobacco Products
Survey researchers have traditionally used a formal writing style when contacting potential respondents. However, there have been few empirical tests of whether an informal, humorous approach may be more effective, at least with younger populations. In this manuscript, we investigate whether a formal or informal writing style is more effective in gaining web survey participation among a panel of LGBT 18- to 24-year-olds. Data come from the Food and Drug Administration's Research and Evaluation Survey for the Public Education Campaign on Tobacco (RESPECT). Panel members, who were initially intercepted and screened for eligibility in social venues such as gay and lesbian bars and nightclubs, received an email survey invitation and up to three reminder emails. Given both the young population and the informal settings in which they were initially recruited, we hypothesized that the population might be more likely to participate in the survey when the email invitations and reminders were informal in tone. However, we also hypothesized that an informal tone could negatively impact data quality by suggesting the survey was not important enough to take seriously. We constructed two sets of