Resources on survey fatigue?

April 29, 2019 7:17 AM

I'm looking for articles and/or research studies looking at survey fatigue--but I have specifics! There are a ton of resources about the phenomenon of survey fatigue within one's own target audience (e.g., "How to avoid oversurveying your customers"). That's not what I'm looking for. Specifically, I am looking for research that examines a more global kind of survey fatigue. Is there research supporting the idea that the sheer number of surveys, questionnaires, etc. we're constantly bombarded with, has decreased overall response rates across the board?
posted by duffell to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

Survey response rates have been declining for decades. This is a huge survey for survey researchers, not only for public opinion but also for social science researchers in government and academia. You should probably start with the National Academies NONRESPONSE IN SOCIAL SCIENCE SURVEYS: A RESEARCH AGENDA, especially the section on "Reasons for Nonresponse" - though at first glance I didn't see the growth in the number of surveys listed as a reason for the decline.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 7:42 AM on April 29, 2019

Pew Research Center has written a few times about the drop in global response rate, which is an incredibly clear and obvious trend. But it's going to be very hard to disentangle the clear global drop in survey response rate from all of the other causal factors, including (in addition to what you mention):

• Increased volume of robocalls
• Increased number of other things posing as surveys (scams, push polls)
• Increased use of caller ID
• Decreasing use of telephone for important contacts
• Generational changes in communication norms

posted by Homeboy Trouble at 7:46 AM on April 29, 2019

Five Thirty Eight's article, Fake Polls Are A Real Problem, points out that it's easier than ever to create a (fake) poll.
posted by oceano at 8:04 AM on April 29, 2019