Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

284 Chapter 10
cover letter directly and personally to the respondent—no ‘‘Dear Respondent’’
allowed—and sign it using a blue ballpoint pen. Ballpoints make an indentation
that respondents can see—yes, some people do hold those letters up to
the light to check. This marks the letter as having been individually signed. In
Japan, Jussaume and Yamada (1990) signed all their letters with an inkan, or
personal seal, and they wrote the address by hand on the envelope to show
that they were serious.
The cover letter must guarantee confidentiality and must explain the presence
of an identification number (if there is one) on the questionnaire. Some
survey topics are so sensitive that respondents will balk at seeing an identification
number on the questionnaire, even if you guarantee anonymity. In this
case, Fowler (1984) recommends eliminating the identification number (thus
making the questionnaire truly anonymous) and telling the respondents that
they simply cannot be identified.
Enclose a printed postcard with the respondent’s name on it and ask the
respondent to mail back the postcard separately from the questionnaire.
Explain that this will notify you that the respondent has sent in the questionnaire
so that you won’t have to send the respondent any reminders later on.
Fowler found that people hardly ever send back the postcard without also
sending back the questionnaire.
7. Packaging: Package the questionnaire, cover letter, and reply envelope and postcard
in another envelope for mailing to the respondent. Type the respondent’s
name and address on the mailing envelope. Avoid mailing labels. Use first-class
postage on the mailing envelope and on the reply envelope. Some people respond
better to real stamps than to metered—even first-class metered—postage. Hansley
(1974) found that using bright commemorative stamps increased response
rate.
8. Inducements: What about sending people money as an inducement to complete
a survey? Mizes et al. (1984) found that offering respondents $1 to complete
and return a questionnaire resulted in significantly increased returns, but offering
respondents $5 did not produce a sufficiently greater return to warrant using this
tactic. In 1984, $5 was close to the value of many respondents’ time for filling
out a questionnaire. This makes responding to a survey more like a strictly economic
exchange and, as Dillman pointed out, makes it easier for people to turn
down (1978:16).
Inflation will surely have taken its toll by this time (sending people $1 in
the mail to answer a survey can’t possibly buy as much response today as it
did in the 1980s), but the point is clear: There is a Goldilocks solution to the
problem of how much money to send people as an incentive to fill out and
return a survey. If you send people too much money or too little, they throw