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CHAPTER 5: Survey Research 151Telephone Interviews• Despite some disadvantages, telephone interviews are used frequently forbrief surveys.The prohibitive cost of personal interviews and difficulties supervising interviewershave led survey researchers to turn to telephone or Internet surveys.Phone interviewing met with considerable criticism when it was first used becauseof serious limitations on the sampling frame of potential respondents.Many people had unlisted numbers, and the poor and those in rural areas wereless likely to have a phone. By 2000, however, more than 97% of all U.S. householdshad telephones (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000), and households with unlistednumbers could be reached using random-digit dialing. The random-digit dialingtechnique permits researchers to contact efficiently a generally representativesample of U.S. telephone owners. Telephone interviewing also provides betteraccess to dangerous neighborhoods, locked buildings, and respondentsavailable only during evening hours (have you ever been asked to complete atelephone survey during dinner?). Interviews can be completed more quicklywhen contacts are made by phone, and interviewers can be better supervisedwhen all interviews are conducted from one location (Figure 5.2).The telephone survey, like the other survey methods, is not without its drawbacks.A possible selection bias exists when respondents are limited to thosewho have telephones and the problem of interviewer bias remains. There is alimit to how long respondents are willing to stay on the phone, and individualsFIGURE 5.2Random-digit dialing allows researchers efficient access to a generally representative sample oftelephone owners for brief surveys.