Survey research, specifically online survey research, is a joy and a burden for many researchers and professionals. It’s easy to collect data with online surveys, but response rates are notoriously low. Trying to get those response rates up to acceptable level can be a chore.
Should survey organizers send out a generic link to everyone or tailor the invite to make it seem more personal, perhaps by also including a password? While generic invitations are often used because they seem more anonymous, personalized invitations are beneficial because they allow us to track who has taken the survey and keep people from taking the survey multiple times.
So what’s best? Does the type of survey invitation (generic or personalized) affect participants’ responses and the extent of perceived anonymity? Actually, according to new research (Mueller et al., 2014), it may not matter at all.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
The authors of the study found that there was no difference in response rates for those receiving a generic invitation and those receiving a personalized invitation; the two groups were equally likely to complete the survey and they left approximately the same number of items unanswered. Responses for both rating scale items and open-ended questions were also comparable across the two groups. Participants did perceive the generic invitation to be slightly more anonymous than the personalized one, but the difference was very small.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The results of this study suggest that requiring survey respondents to use a personalized password may not be as negative as previously thought. As far as the responses and response rates, it did not really matter if the survey invitation was generic or personalized. Survey organizers can be confident in doing whatever they have been currently doing.
Mueller, K., Straatmann, T., Hattrup, K., & Jochum, M. (2014). Effects of personalized versus generic implementation of an intra-organizational online survey on psychological anonymity and response behavior: A field experiment. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(2), 169–181.
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