TY - JOUR
T1 - Handling Do-Not-Know Answers
T2 - Exploring New Approaches in Online and Mixed-Mode Surveys
AU - de Leeuw, Edith D.
AU - Hox, Joop J.
AU - Boevé, Anja
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - An important decision in online and mixed-mode questionnaire design is if and how to include a “do-not-know” (DK) option. Mandatory response is often a default option, but methodologists have advised against this. Several solutions for the DK category are suggested. These include (1) not explicitly offering a DK, but skipping questions is allowed, (2) explicitly offering a DK option with visual separation from the substantive responses, and (3) using the interactivity of the web to emulate interviewer probing after a DK answer. To test these solutions, experimental data were collected in a probability based online panel. Not offering DK, but allowing respondents to skip questions, followed by a polite probe when skips occurred, resulted in the lowest amount of missing information. To assess the effect of probing across different modes, a second experiment was carried out that compared explicitly and implicitly offering the DK option for web and telephone surveys.
AB - An important decision in online and mixed-mode questionnaire design is if and how to include a “do-not-know” (DK) option. Mandatory response is often a default option, but methodologists have advised against this. Several solutions for the DK category are suggested. These include (1) not explicitly offering a DK, but skipping questions is allowed, (2) explicitly offering a DK option with visual separation from the substantive responses, and (3) using the interactivity of the web to emulate interviewer probing after a DK answer. To test these solutions, experimental data were collected in a probability based online panel. Not offering DK, but allowing respondents to skip questions, followed by a polite probe when skips occurred, resulted in the lowest amount of missing information. To assess the effect of probing across different modes, a second experiment was carried out that compared explicitly and implicitly offering the DK option for web and telephone surveys.
KW - data quality
KW - emulating interviewers
KW - item nonresponse
KW - probing
KW - visual design
KW - web survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84952766127&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0894439315573744
DO - 10.1177/0894439315573744
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84952766127
SN - 0894-4393
VL - 34
SP - 116
EP - 132
JO - Social Science Computer Review
JF - Social Science Computer Review
IS - 1
ER -