RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

236 INTERNET-BASED RESEARCH AND COMPUTER USAGE
lists in alphabetical order. Finally they found that
placing very short guides underneath the writein
box rather than at its side (e.g. dd/mm/yy for
‘day/month/year’, and using ‘yy’ for ‘year’ rather
than ‘yyyy’) increased response rates, and that
placing instructions very close to the answer box
improved response rates.
Dillman et al. (2003: 23) also found that
having respondents use a yes/no format (a ‘forced
choice’) for responding resulted in increased
numbers of affirmative answers, even though this
requires more cognitive processing than nonforced
choice questions (e.g. ‘tick[check]-all-thatapply’
questions). This is because respondents may
not wish to answer questions in the outright
negative (Dillman et al. 2003:10);evenifthey
do not really have an opinion or they are neutral
or the item does not really apply to them, they may
choose a ‘yes’ rather than a ‘no’ category. They
may leave a blank rather than indicating a ‘no’.
The percentage of affirmative responses was higher
in a paper-based survey than in an Internet-based
survey (11.3 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively)
(Dillman et al. 2003: 22).
Similarly, as mentioned earlier, Dillman et al.
(2003) report that respondents tend to select
items higher up a list than lower down a list
of options (the primacy effect), opting for the
‘satisficing’ principle (they are satisfied with a
minimum sufficient response, selecting the first
reasonable response in a list and then moving on
rather than working their way down the list to find
the optimal response), suggesting that item order
is a significant feature, making a difference of over
39 per cent to responses (Dillman et al. 2003:7).
This is particularly so, the authors aver, when
respondents are asked for opinions and beliefs
rather than topics seeking factual information.
They also suggest that the more difficult the
item is, the more respondents will move towards
‘satisficing’. Dillman et al. (2003:22)foundthat
‘satisficing’ and the primacy effect were stronger in
Internet surveys than paper-based surveys, and that
changing ‘check-all-that-apply’ to forced responses
(yes/no) did not eliminate response order effects.
Dillman et al. (2003:6)alsoreportthatthe
order of response items can have an effect on
responses, citing as an example a study that found
that asking college students whether their male or
female teachers were more empathetic was affected
by whether the ‘male’ option was placed before or
after the ‘female’ option: ‘respondents evaluated
their female teachers more positively when they
were asked to compare them to their male teachers
than when they were asked to compare their male
teachers to their female teachers’. Respondents
compare the second item in light of the first
item in a list rather than considering the items
separately.
Internet-based surveys are subject to the same
ethical rules as paper-based surveys. These include,
for example, informed consent and confidentiality.
While the former may be straightforward to ensure,
the issue of confidentiality on the Internet is
more troublesome for researchers. For example,
on the one hand, an email survey can be quick and
uncomplicated, it can also reveal the identity and
traceability of the respondent. As Witmer et al.
(1999: 147) remark, this could stall a project.
Security (e.g. through passwords and PINs) is
one possible solution, although this, too, can
create problems in that respondents may feel
that they are being identified and tracked, and,
indeed, some surveys may deposit unwelcome
‘cookies’ onto the respondent’s computer, for
future contact.
Sampling in Internet-based surveys
Sampling bias is a major concern for Internetbased
surveys (Coomber 1997; Roztocki and
Lahri 2002). Hewson et al. (2003: 27) suggest
that ‘Internet-mediated research is immediately
subject to serious problems concerning sampling
representativeness and validity of data’, e.g. that
the Internet researcher tends to tap into middleclass
and well-educated populations, mainly from
the United States, or undergraduate and college
students. Survey 2000 (Witte et al. 1999)found
that 92.5 per cent of respondents were white.
However, the view of over-representation of
some and under-representation of others is being
increasingly challenged (Smith and Leigh 1997;