Varying the content of political science surveys to improve the survey experience and data quality of politically disengaged respondents
Respondents’ survey experience affects their answering and participation behavior and, consequently, measurement and nonresponse errors. Political science surveys especially suffer from biased estimates of political attitudes and behavior. Improving respondents’ survey experience by offering a more...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
11 August 2026
|
| In: |
Journal of survey statistics and methodology
Year: 2026, Pages: ? |
| ISSN: | 2325-0992 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jssam/smaf061 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smaf061
|
| Author Notes: | Saskia Bartholomäus, Tobias Gummer |
| Summary: | Respondents’ survey experience affects their answering and participation behavior and, consequently, measurement and nonresponse errors. Political science surveys especially suffer from biased estimates of political attitudes and behavior. Improving respondents’ survey experience by offering a more interesting and varied questionnaire poses a possible solution to this problem. In this regard, we break new ground by investigating whether improving politically disengaged respondents’ survey experience by including non-political survey content enhances data quality with respect to measurement and nonresponse errors in political science surveys. For this purpose, we conducted two survey experiments in a probability- and a nonprobability-based panel that varied the content of a political science questionnaire. This study provides the first evidence that offering a varied questionnaire rather than a purely political one lowered or even diminished the gap in measurement and nonresponse errors between politically engaged and disengaged respondents. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Gesehen am 18.08.2026 Online: 11 August 2026 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 2325-0992 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/jssam/smaf061 |