Survey Methodology - Interviewer Effects

Interviewer Effects

Survey methodologists have devoted much effort to determine the extent to which interviewee responses are affected by physical characteristics of the interviewer. Main interviewer traits that have been demonstrated to influence survey responses are race, gender and relative body weight (BMI) . These interviewer effects are particularly operant when questions are related to the interviewer trait. Hence, race of interviewer has been shown to affect responses to measures regarding racial attitudes, interviewer sex responses to questions involving gender issues, and interviewer BMI answers to eating and dieting-related questions . While interviewer effects have been investigated mainly for face-to-face surveys, they have also been shown to exist for interview modes with no visual contact, such as telephone surveys and in video-enhanced web surveys. The explanation typically provided for interviewer effects is that of social desirability. Survey participants may attempt to project a positive self-image in an effort to conform to the norms they attribute to the interviewer asking questions.