The Psychology of the Internet
The Psychology of the Internet
Conducting Research Surveys Via E-Mail and the Web
Conducting Research Surveys Via E-Mail and the Web
A comparision between responses from a propensity-weighted web survey and an identical RDD survey
Social Science Computer Review
Does survey format influence self-disclosure on sensitive question items?
Computers in Human Behavior
ICICA'12 Proceedings of the Third international conference on Information Computing and Applications
Data Quality in PC and Mobile Web Surveys
Social Science Computer Review
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
As organizations such as the US Navy move toward web-based survey administration, it is important to determine whether responses to sensitive questions are equivalent regardless of the administration method. It is possible that having to enter a military website and provide a username to access the survey might increase anonymity and confidentiality concerns, thereby increasing the likelihood of response distortion. Although previous research has shown that self-administered questionnaires (both paper- and computer-based) generally result in equivalent responses, to date little research has investigated the effects of asking sensitive information in a web-based survey format. In order to test for potential response bias, a survey was created containing questions about family planning attitudes and birth control usage, impression management and self-deception scales, and privacy and confidentiality concerns. Paper surveys were sent to about 3300 randomly selected enlisted Navy personnel while another 3300 received an invitational letter to a survey website. In general, the results show few differences between web-based and paper-based survey responses, demonstrating that sensitive data can be collected via web-based surveys without significantly influencing the honesty of survey responses. In addition, the perceived levels of privacy and confidentiality did not result in a significant difference between the responses provided.