Examining survey participation and response quality: The significance of topic salience and incentives - ARCHIVED

Nonresponse bias has been a long-standing issue in survey research (Brehm 1993; Dillman, Eltinge, Groves and Little 2002), with numerous studies seeking to identify factors that affect both item and unit response. To contribute to the broader goal of minimizing survey nonresponse, this study considers several factors that can impact survey nonresponse, using a 2007 Animal Welfare Survey Conducted in Ohio, USA. In particular, the paper examines the extent to which topic salience and incentives affect survey participation and item nonresponse, drawing on the leverage-saliency theory (Groves, Singer and Corning 2000). We find that participation in a survey is affected by its subject context (as this exerts either positive or negative leverage on sampled units) and prepaid incentives, which is consistent with the leverage-saliency theory. Our expectations are also confirmed by the finding that item nonresponse, our proxy for response quality, does vary by proximity to agriculture and the environment (residential location, knowledge about how food is grown, and views about the importance of animal welfare). However, the data suggests that item nonresponse does not vary according to whether or not a respondent received incentives.