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Sociological Methods & Research
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Design of Web Questionnaires

An Information-Processing Perspective for the Effect of Response Categories

Vera Toepoel

Tilburg University, Netherlands, V.Toepoel{at}uvt.nl

Corrie Vis

Tilburg University, Netherlands

Marcel Das

Tilburg University, Netherlands

Arthur van Soest

Tilburg University, Netherlands

In this article, an information-processing perspective is used to explore the impact of response categories on the answers respondents provide in Web surveys. Response categories have a significant effect on response formulation in questions that are difficult to process, whereas in easier questions (where responses are based on direct recall) the response scales have a smaller effect. In general, people with less cognitive sophistication are more affected by contextual cues. The Need for Cognition and the Need to Evaluate indexes for motivation account for a significant part of the variance in survey responding. Interactions of ability to process information and motivation combine in regulating responses for questions that are more difficult to process. The results hint at a substantial role of satisficing in Web surveys.

Key Words: response effects • satisficing • need for cognition • need to evaluate • Web surveys

This version was published on February 1, 2009

Sociological Methods & Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, 371-392 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0049124108327123
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