A Comparison of RDD and Cellular Telephone Surveys

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc., Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Since very little research has examined the impact on surveys of the exploding growth of wireless communication devices, this study will assess the extent to which these devices are likely to change telephone surveys. This issue will be addressed by comparing the results of two national surveys, one using the usual list-assisted RDD sample and the other employing a sample of mobile telephone numbers. The questionnaire, which will be identical in both surveys, will include substantive items on important policy issues as well as inquiries about mobile telephone ownership and use. The analyses will search for significant differences between surveys along four dimensions-coverage, nonresponse, data quality, and relationships among variables. Methodological factors, such as the number of attempts, the percentage of sample numbers whose status as working or nonworking is indeterminate, and the effects of caller-id, will also be compared. The basic hypothesis underlying all analyses is that there are major differences between the two modes along each dimension. Given that wireless communication devices will only become more widely used and more sophisticated in the very near future, it is necessary to determine how they might enrich and supplement the survey process. This research will provide initial evidence. Contact through mobile telephones promises to make hard-to-reach respondents more accessible and to give voice to groups either poorly represented or not represented at all in current surveys. By gauging the reactions of respondents to survey contacts via a cellular telephone, the project also will provide practical guidance on incorporating wireless devices into the survey process. Since methodologists now predict that future surveys will be multi-modal, mixing present and future wireless communication devices with fixed line telephones and the web, this study will describe both the opportunities and the pitfalls involved. The end result will be an expanded definition of surveys and better and more valid data upon which to base public policy. This research is supported by the Methodology, Measurement, and Statistics Program and a consortium of federal statistical agencies under the Research on Survey and Statistical Methodology Funding Opportunity.