Interviewer effects in real and falsified interviews: Results from a large scale experiment

摘要

Interviewers influence data quality in surveys unintentionally or intentionally. Within the framework of theories on interviewers' motivation, we analyze influences of interviewers' characteristics and payment schemes on falsified and real data. The empirical analysis is based on data of a large scale experimental study, which includes both real and falsified interviews. For this experimental study, the interviewers' payment was subject to two different conditions both for real and falsified interviews, namely payment per completed interview and payment per hour. The impact of payment, gender, and some measures of interviewers' attitudes is analyzed with regard to duration of interviews and some meta-indicators used previously to identify potential falsifications in survey data. Empirical results are presented, and a conclusion is drawn regarding the impact of payment scheme and interviewers' characteristics on data quality.