➤Ten years ago the authors surveyed the problem of interviewer bias and concluded that it was one of the major sources of error in survey research. A recent survey of the subject confirms the continued existence of the problem. Some significant gains have been achieved in dealing with interviewer bias during the intervening decade, but the same problems still exist to a major degree and relatively little is being done to solve them.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AtheyE. R., ColemanJohn E., ReitmansAudrey P., and LangJenny, “Two Experiments Showing the Effect of the Interviewer's Racial Background in Responses to Questionnaires Concerning Racial Issue,”Journal of Applied Psychology, (December 1960), 381–385.
2.
BenneyMark, RiesmanDavid, and StarShirley A., “Age and Sex in the Interview,”The American Journal of Sociology, (July 1956), 143.
3.
BoydHarper W.Jr., and WestfallRalph, “Interviewers as a Source of Error in Surveys,”Journal of Marketing, (April 1955), 311–324.
4.
BucherRue, FritzCharles E., and QuarantelliE. L., “Tape Recorded Research: Some Field and Data Processing Problems,”Public Opinion Quarterly, (1956), 427.
5.
Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Evaluation of Statistical Methods Used in Obtaining Broadcast Ratings, (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1961), 77.
6.
DaleniusTore, “Treatment of the Non-Response Problem,”Journal of Advertising Research, (September 1961), 3–5.
7.
Edwards DemingW., “On a Probability Mechanism to Attain an Economic Balance Between the Resultant Error of Response and the Bias of Non-Response,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (December 1953), 745.
8.
DurbinJ., and StuartA., “Differences in Response Rates of Experiences Interviewers,”Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 114, Part II (1951), 173.
9.
Sachar EhrlichJune, and RiesmanDavid, “Age and Authority in the Interview,”Public Opinion Quarterly, (Spring 1961).
10.
EngelJ. F., “Tape Recorders in Consumer Research,”Journal of Marketing, (April 1962), 73–74.
11.
FerberRobert, and HauckMathew, A Framework for Dealing with Response Errors in Consumer Surveys, Paper presented at National Conference of American Marketing Association, June 17, 1964.
12.
GuestLester, “A Study of Interviewer Competence,”International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, (December 1947), 17–36.
13.
GuestLester, and NicholsR., “A Laboratory Experiment in Recording Public Opinion Interviewing,”International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, 4(1950), 346–352.
14.
HansenMorris H., and HurwitzWilliam H., “The Problem of Non-Response in Sample Surveys,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (December 1946), 517–529.
15.
HansenRobert H., and MarksEli S., “Influence of the Interviewer on the Accuracy of Survey Results,”Journal of American Statistical Association, (September 1958), 635–655.
16.
HansenMorris H., and SternbergJoseph, “Control of Errors in Surveys,”Biometrics, (December 1956), 463–474.
17.
HardingJohn, “Refusals as a Source of Bias,” in CantrilHadley, Gauging Public Opinion, Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1947, 120.
18.
HymanHerbert H., CobbWilliam J., FeldmanJacob J., HartClyde W., and StemblerCharles Herbert, Interviewing in Social Research, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954, 237.
19.
ItoRikuma, “An Analysis of Response Errors: A Case Study,”Journal of Business, (October 1963), 444.
20.
KahnRobert L., and CannellCharles F., The Dynamics of Interviewing, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1957, 47.
21.
KincaidHarry V., and BrightMargaret, “The Tandem Interview—A Trial of the Two-Interviewer Team,”Public Opinion Quarterly, (Summer 1957), 304.
22.
KindelW. I., “Sex of Observer and Spousal Roles in Decision-Making,”Marriage and Family Living, (May 1961), 186.
23.
KiserClyde V., “Pitfalls in Sampling for Population Study,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (September 1934), 251.
24.
KishLeslie, “A Procedure for Objective Respondent Selection Within the Household,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (September 1949), 380–387.
25.
KishLeslie, and HessIrene, “On Non-coverage of Sample Dwellings,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (June 1958), 509–524.
26.
LansingJohn B., and EapenA. T., “Dealing with Missing Information in Surveys,”Journal of Marketing, (October 1959), 21–28.
27.
LansingJohn B., GinsbergGerald P., and BraatenKaisa, An Investigation of Response Error, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Bureau of Economic and Business Research, 1961.
28.
LenskiGerhard E., and LeggettJohn C., “Caste, Class and Deference in the Research Interview,”The American Journal of Sociology, (March 1960), 467.
29.
ManheimerDean, and HymanHerbert, “Interviewer Performance in Area Sampling,”Public Opinion Quarterly, (Spring 1949), 87–88.
30.
MayerCharles S., “The Interviewer and His Environment,”Journal of Marketing Research, 1(November 1964).
31.
MayerCharles S., Interviewing Costs in Survey Research, Michigan Business Reports #46, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Bureau of Business Research, 1964.
32.
NamiasJean, “A Rapid Method to Detect Differences in Interviewer Performance,”Journal of Marketing, (April 1962), 68–72.
33.
PartenMildred B., Surveys, Polls and Samples, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1950, 346–348 and 412–414.
34.
PolitzAlfred, and SimmonsWillard, “An Attempt to Get the ‘Not-at-Homes’ into the Sample Without Call Backs,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, (March 1949), 9–32.
ShapiroSam, and EberhardtJohn C., “Interviewer Differences in an Intensive Interview Situation,”International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, (June 1947), 1–17.
37.
SheatsleyPaul B., “An Analysis of Interviewer Characteristics and Their Relationship to Performance, Part III,”International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, 5(1951), 193–197.
38.
StewartJohn B., Repetitive Advertising in Newspapers—A Study of Two Products, Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration Division of Research, 1964.
39.
ThuminFrederick J., “Watch for Those Unseen Variables,”Journal of Marketing, (July 1962), 60.
40.
WeissDavid J., and DavisRene V., “An Objective Validation of Factual Interview Data,”Journal of Applied Psychology, (December 1960), 381–385.